it didn't start with dSLR's Guys with Leicas have been comparing images to 4x5's from the start. Photography is more about the "craft" than about "art". Photographers want to think of themselves as artists and try to overlook the craft to call it art when in reality it is just the opposite. Just as learning to draw is a craft too. Art is something else entirely.
Greg Lockrey
Wealth is a state of mind.
Money is just a tool.
Happiness is pedaling +25mph on a smooth road.
William McEwen: "Question: How many of you have had someone look at one of your black and white photographs and remarked, "Too bad it's not in color!"
Interesting question....as I counter point I have never had anyone look at my color photographs and say they with they were B&W. However, I have had a grant proposal rejected on the basis that my work was not 'art,' but was merely documentation and exercise in composition. (note: I should have known that a organization with the word 'craft' in their name would prefer the photographer that shot collodian wet plate images of their grandmother in a white dress in an abandoned house to my large color inkjet prints.....). Each is entitled to their opinion....and I am very entrenched in my own.
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http://adamsatushek.com
Greg Lockrey
Wealth is a state of mind.
Money is just a tool.
Happiness is pedaling +25mph on a smooth road.
Greg Lockrey: "Photography is more about the "craft" than about "art". Photographers want to think of themselves as artists and try to overlook the craft to call it art when in reality it is just the opposite. Just as learning to draw is a craft too. Art is something else entirely."
Again a very generalized statement. I see what your getting at but totally disagree. Photography can be art, but is not necessarily. Its all about intent. This kind of comes back to, I believe it was Weston, who demanded to be called a "photographer" instead of an "artist," somehow implying that they former is more valid. Personally I think that whole discussion is irrelevant, some photographers do it for the craft (craftsmen), and others do it to say something (artists). This distinction has nothing to do with chosen materials. And while I place myself firmly in the latter, I will not waste my time trying to convince anyone else of this. Its a pointless pursuit.
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http://adamsatushek.com
"Art is concerned about space. Illustration is concerned about things." - Martha, Michael A. Smith's first wife.
Greg Lockrey: "Ok... how about this: a "photographer" is a mechanically inclined "artist" .... " Totally, I agree that they should be....I have seen work that suffers greatly from a lack of mechanical inclination. There is not doubt in my mind that to be a successful photographer one must be somewhat mechanically inclined, its probably part of the reason many of us gravitate toward photography in the first place.
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http://adamsatushek.com
William McEwen: "Art is concerned about space. Illustration is concerned about things." - Martha, Michael A. Smith's first wife.
Interesting quote...I'm curious if you might elaborate what you understand it as meaning. I ask because I am having a bit of a hard time deciphering it. I guess I don't understand the distinction between 'space' and 'things.' The way I see it 'things' are just solidified 'space'....and 'space' is just that which is void of 'things.' This may be another discussion........
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http://adamsatushek.com
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