Photos are the medium for art: I forget this from time to time, getting all hung up on the gear we have. There were several great artists who used the lowly Polaroid as their medium.

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

I forget this from time to time, getting all hung up on the gear we have. There were several great artists who used the lowly Polaroid as their medium. Granted they had a higher grade of Polaroid, the SX70, at a time when there were a lot more options available from camera makers and film manufacturers. And we all know how impressive the products from cell phones can be in this modern age. Industry advertising wants us to believe that the higher the tech, the better the art. I think not. So what do we teach first to a youngster, artistic vision or technical proficiency? Both are important but I think that artistic vision provides the foundation and the gear provides the means of expression. Without the vision of our destination, we're just driving the car down the road with no particular place to go, snap snap snap.

Kmgw9v Loc: Miami, Florida

"Talent does what it can; Genius does what it must."

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

A humble viewpoint from an enthusiastic amateur:

First, how to see and use LIGHT:
http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-529331-1.html
http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-534411-1.html

Then composition and vision. What's important in a photograph and what isn't:
https://photographylife.com/whats-important-in-a-photograph-and-what-isnt

Simultaneously with composition comes basic exposure (none of this histogram or pixel peeping nonsense

) and the properties of shutter speed and aperture.

mohandas

What Linda madam & kmgw9v said is right.

Photography is art , there are many other opinions. Even Though art is the main thing considering any type of photography .
Mohandas , Pazhambalakode , Palakkad - 678 722 , Kerala , India .

Darkroom317 Loc: Mishawaka, IN

I mostly use extremely simple (what I think is simple) equipment without automatic anything. Even when I do use my more complicated digital camera I use few of the features. This allows me to focus more on the image and the concept that it conveys without the technical getting in the way.

Artistic vision and creativity should be encouraged throughout our lives. A person with creativity can be given any camera and produce amazing work. Many photographers use "toy" plastic cameras in their work at one time or another such as Nancy Rexoth, Michael Kenna and David Burnett.

Also, here is a great and timely article by Catherine Edelman of the Edelman Gallery in Chicago on art photography. https://www.lensculture.com/articles/catherine-edelman-what-is-art-photography-catherine-edelman-offers-her-opinion

traderjohn Loc: New York City

mohandas wrote:

What Linda madam & kmgw9v said is right.

Photography is art , there are many other opinions. Even Though art is the main thing considering any type of photography .
Mohandas , Pazhambalakode , Palakkad - 678 722 , Kerala , India .

Photography is not art. A photographer uses a battery-powered plastic/metal object to take the picture. The camera through a variety of different modes incorporated into the camera and through integration with a lens takes the electronic manipulated picture and stores the picture on a plastic device. The picture is then subject to a post-processing indoctrination with a variety of software programs operated by different sliders to enhance, deceive exaggerate the end result. The end result is an electronically produced product. A photograph.

Kmgw9v Loc: Miami, Florida

traderjohn wrote:

Photography is not art. A photographer uses a batt... (show quote)

Photography is art.

srt101fan

traderjohn wrote:

Photography is not art. A photographer uses a batt... (show quote)

Not sure of your point. Everything you say after the first sentence is true. You describe a process. In painting, that process would include squeezing colored goo out of a tube and applying it to a surface with a brush or other device.

The first sentence is correct only in the sense that photography is a process, not a product, that, just like painting, may or may not produce art.

Can photography produce art? Of course it can. Just look at Darkroom327's website....

traderjohn Loc: New York City

srt101fan wrote:

Not sure of your point. Everything you say after the first sentence is true. You describe a process. In painting, that process would include squeezing colored goo out of a tube and applying it to a surface with a brush or other device.

The first sentence is correct only in the sense that photography is a process, not a product, that, just like painting, may or may not produce art.

Can photography produce art? Of course it can. Just look at Darkroom327's website....

Darkroom 327's website is product related. So their biases would lean in that direction. The use of paint and brush is all on a human. Not an electronic tool. Then further enhanced by more electronic tools.

ole sarg Loc: south florida

By your mother you are an artist, by your father you are an artist, by your wife too, but by an artist you ain't no artist!

Skiextreme2 Loc: Northwest MA

Kmgw9v wrote:

Photography is art.

Darkroom317 Loc: Mishawaka, IN

traderjohn wrote:

Photography is not art. A photographer uses a batt... (show quote)

I use none of what you mention. No batteries and no software.

What you have posted is a very narrow view of photography. Photography is any image created by recording light with light sensitive media. This can be achieved by using a digital sensor, film, commercially coated paper, hand coated paper etc... There are a vast number of techniques beyond what you have stated.

storf1

Both sides are right. I belong to a Photography Club. We show at an Art Museum, Library etc
Most produce creative artistic photos. Some are just nice pictures.
Some are obvious works of art!
Are all photographs Art? No.
Are all paintings Artistic and
creative? No!
It isn’t cut and dried.
Who decides? The creator or the viewer. Worth thinking about.

Darkroom317 Loc: Mishawaka, IN

Furthermore art lies in expressing a concept though visual means. Photography in many ways, in the art world, has become one of the most difficult mediums for art. This is because it is has become highly conceptual and formal qualities aren't discussed as much. Technique is easy, conveying a meaningful and interesting message is more difficult. Sculpture is another medium that has had a similar conceptual push. Painting appears for the most part has retained more its formalism at least in the tradition in which I learned painting.

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

traderjohn wrote:

Photography is not art. A photographer uses a batt... (show quote)

Photography is the process. The end product can be art. I mentored a painter who wanted to use her camera to capture an image that she would then render into a painting. I can do something similar but much more simply by using an app that converts my photo into a watercolor version. No matter how rendered, the medium is different but the end result can be the same. I guess it depends on whether you consider yourself an art purist or not.