Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/04/10
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 09:01 PM 09/04/98 EDT, you wrote: > Eric - Do you draw a distintction between "art photos" like Francesco's, > "arte photos" like Andy Warhol & Man Ray's and " fine arts photos like > Jim Brick's ? Or do you lump them all together and consider your photo- > jounalism in the same class as Arthur Felig's? What are you talking about? To suggest that there are "art photos", "arte photos" and "fine art photos" only muddies the water. It's just more shaving cream, applied to make people think that such distinctions really mean something. Smokescreens. There is no problem trying to classify photographs by genre ... nature, sports, portraiture, etc., or to classify according to content or intended use ... journalism, commercial, editorial, highschool yearbook, or whatever, recognizing that there are areas where some of these categories overlap. (Hopefully we can agree that art is some creative form of expression involving technical, physical and emotional discipline and skill, being both practical and aesthetic, then perhaps we have some common understanding for further discussion. An art work, whether is happens to be appreciated by the public or by any individual, should make some significant statement which is of some particular significance to a certain time and place. Using this definition, photography certainly qulaifies as art.) Since you identify certain recognizable and distinguishing photographic styles, it seems clear that we do have as a starting point of discussion at least some agreement that we are talking about a legitimate form of art. Fine. Main point follows. In other forms of art, it is quite clear that when we talk about things like impressionism, cubism, surrealism, pop art, and so on, we have some common basis of understanding. We are on terra firma. Where are we though when we use terms like "art" and "arte" to try to make differentiations? Is there some common use of such terms? If so, I would like someone to explain what "arte" is, and how it is different from "fine art" within the context of art. I suspect that these terms are not used in the photographic arts with any common frame of reference at all. - -GH