Is a photographer an artist?

[Jorge Oliveira]

There is an Brazilian architect that is quite famous all over the world, Oscar Niemeyer.

Well, he doesn't buid anything - just DRAFT the buildings as per his inner vision and others finish it.

So, even out of photography an artist does not have to be a craftsman.

Jorge O

[Ed Sukach]

"Is a photographer an artist?"

Yes.

[Tom Duffy]

is a craftsman an artist? if not what's the difference between the two?

[blansky]

So, we've ascertained that an "artist" doesn't have to actually build anything, and doesn't have to print anything, so here is my question:

Is a person an "artist" if he just thinks about something and does not physically do anything?

What if he "dreams it up", tells someone else and they make, build, assemble it. Is he an artist? OR is the person that eventually takes his idea the "artist"?

Is an inventor and artist?


Just askin'



MIchael MCBlane

[lee]

"Is a person an "artist" if he just thinks about something and does not physically do anything?"

Back in the 1970's there was a school of thought and art called "Conceptualism". It essentially was what you are asking about. Just think up the piece and get someone else to do the work. I think Andy Warhol worked in the manor if not all the time then at least some of the time.

lee\c

[victor]

well..
it is really a very dificult question..
i cannot think of my works as printed by some one else. i think it is very important to work on your own. the development is much better. i dont mean studing basics, i mean going beyound the professionalism. in this respect, for me, darkroom plays a great role.
but,, i cannot say it in total way...
first, as jorge oliv said about the architect. second.. if we take a studio work for example, one who make a negative which is totally balanced and directed to some kind of print, than does it really matters if he himself exposes the negative to the paper or his printer colegue?
but generally, i tend to the end of the self working and finishing. i think even in studio work, the touch of the photographer is more sesetive when one know to master the darkroom craft.

[Thomassauerwein]

You might ask Kostabi, He made millions with everyone else painting his concepts. They are great , A statement about human nature and it's assembly line approach to growth and structural evelution. To his buying public he is definatelly an artist. Yet his assembly line does the dirty work. He being the Idea guy.

[Jorge Oliveira]

Michael

As I see it, an artist is someone that creates what we consider 'art'.

He doesn't have to execute it as long as he can transmit his idea for other people to do the final work.

Going back to Niemeyer, see as an exemple his home:

http://www.niemeyer.org.br/canoas/canoas.htm

What he did was the sketch - other people took care of the details (under his guidance) and built the house (I've met people that worked for him and made comments on how he works).

So, if one takes a photo and someone else do the dev and print to his liking, this doesn't makes he/she a lesser artist.

Jorge O

[Bruce Osgood]

Is a photographer an artist?
Maybe not.

It seems a court of law has determined that an image that went from photographer, to a person to develop the film, to a person to print the image and then to someone to retouch it, 'belongs' to the last person to touch it -- the retoucher.

(bupm, err BUMP)

[blansky]

What if a person thinks about something, and tells no one. Is he still an "artist".

Is the defining action the thinking, or the making. If it is just the thinking, then being an artist is completely irrelevant. Almost everyone thinks of stuff all day. Everyone is an "artist". It all means nothing.

As my Sensei, Donald would say, "Art is just like water flowing through your fingers, you might know what it is but you can't grasp it."


When you can snatch the pebble from my hand then it is....
.........
.............

Michael