Hark! It is is preposterous how disconnected we, as artists, have become! We let these machines soulless create our art for us! I for one think that if we are truly artist, let us turn away from photography and towards painting, for that is the truer art form! So I say put down your Cannon's, your Nikon's, and your Leica's and raise your paintbrushes towards the heavens!!
...now you have to imagine me saying that in the most self important tone of voice you can think of to get the full effect.
Anyone who has done a stint in art school inevitably gets entrapped in the never ending dialog about progress. Some people think that doing hands on and alternative processing (in regard to photography) are a more true or pure form of the art form than digital photography.
For anyone doesn't think that spending 9 hours in a hole "suffering for their art" is what makes you an artist, this is actually incredibly insulting.
So lets discuss this idea:
Some claim that essentially the tactile nature of hand printing, emulsion coating, and alternative processing is what makes you truly connected with "nature" and your work. The silver in emulsion, the wood in 4x5 camera, the chemicals used to developed are all things derived from nature and using them somehow connects you to mother Gaia and make it more meaningful. Also that the artist must be involved in every aspect of the process or it is no longer "their creation". :Gasp!
I just don't understand how you can truly think all of those things and not understand how elitist and close minded they actually are. (This is ironic because most of the people that have these or similar beliefs frequently think they are incredibly open minded)
Most people dismiss the digital age as giving photographers "an easy button" and a "loss of connection to their work."
First let me address that not all photographers are artists. I REPEAT, NOT ALL PHOTOGRAPHERS ARE ARTIST! Some people just like it and they figure it is a better career than being an accountant. There are those that go out to photograph the weddings, barmitzvahs, parties, and editorial articles of the world without ever considering the message they will try to convey with their images.
That being said I think that people who think that the technology has made photography easier don't understand how to use it. What technology has done to the field of photography is open it up, increase the possibilities ten fold to what they were before! We are able to fully explore the outer limits of our imagination!
Fine art majors always like to hype up the notion of the"process" being the most important part of "art." But if it was then we would all go through life simply doing and never achieving. There is a psychology to using different tools, they do yield different ways of thinking however we use those tools to feel a certain way in order to achieve a result or product.
It is about the process and the product, BOTH of those ideas TOGETHER.
When we are only concerned with the process than we would hang photos in our galleries of a perfect zone system print or a picture of a red dot because of what their "process" was to achieve said image..... oh wait.... we do that don't we? MoMa? ......hmmm shouldn't that be called therapy and not photography?
Really what needs to be said is stop thinking, pondering, discussing, and lecturing about photography and go out and create imagery!
.......Or maybe I should begin construction on my hut in the woods where I will make a small hole in the wall and sit in darkness.....
...now you have to imagine me saying that in the most self important tone of voice you can think of to get the full effect.
Anyone who has done a stint in art school inevitably gets entrapped in the never ending dialog about progress. Some people think that doing hands on and alternative processing (in regard to photography) are a more true or pure form of the art form than digital photography.
For anyone doesn't think that spending 9 hours in a hole "suffering for their art" is what makes you an artist, this is actually incredibly insulting.
So lets discuss this idea:
Some claim that essentially the tactile nature of hand printing, emulsion coating, and alternative processing is what makes you truly connected with "nature" and your work. The silver in emulsion, the wood in 4x5 camera, the chemicals used to developed are all things derived from nature and using them somehow connects you to mother Gaia and make it more meaningful. Also that the artist must be involved in every aspect of the process or it is no longer "their creation". :Gasp!
I just don't understand how you can truly think all of those things and not understand how elitist and close minded they actually are. (This is ironic because most of the people that have these or similar beliefs frequently think they are incredibly open minded)
Most people dismiss the digital age as giving photographers "an easy button" and a "loss of connection to their work."
First let me address that not all photographers are artists. I REPEAT, NOT ALL PHOTOGRAPHERS ARE ARTIST! Some people just like it and they figure it is a better career than being an accountant. There are those that go out to photograph the weddings, barmitzvahs, parties, and editorial articles of the world without ever considering the message they will try to convey with their images.
That being said I think that people who think that the technology has made photography easier don't understand how to use it. What technology has done to the field of photography is open it up, increase the possibilities ten fold to what they were before! We are able to fully explore the outer limits of our imagination!
Fine art majors always like to hype up the notion of the"process" being the most important part of "art." But if it was then we would all go through life simply doing and never achieving. There is a psychology to using different tools, they do yield different ways of thinking however we use those tools to feel a certain way in order to achieve a result or product.
It is about the process and the product, BOTH of those ideas TOGETHER.
When we are only concerned with the process than we would hang photos in our galleries of a perfect zone system print or a picture of a red dot because of what their "process" was to achieve said image..... oh wait.... we do that don't we? MoMa? ......hmmm shouldn't that be called therapy and not photography?
Really what needs to be said is stop thinking, pondering, discussing, and lecturing about photography and go out and create imagery!
.......Or maybe I should begin construction on my hut in the woods where I will make a small hole in the wall and sit in darkness.....