When was the last time that you looked at a print with a dust mark or two, and weren't at least slightly distracted by the mark?
I've taught beginning photo courses for many years, thousands of students. Stuff like that doesn't bother me at all. If it did, everybody would flunk.
We all bring baggage. Regardless of who we are, where we were brought up or by whom, where we went to school, which country we live in, which religion if any or not at all, whether we got a good night's sleep, what our interactions with others have been like today, etc., too much coffee or not enough -- we bring it all with us. Any little thing can be the "Exit" sign when we look at something. Distractions "R" us.
I believe an good artist uses process to an effect. Masterful use of a process is perfect control of the result, to achieve the desired effect. Part of the effect are the choices the artist makes concerning his materials and how they are used. A viewer may not know one thing from another, nor care, but ability of the artist to communicate through a medium, the choice of medium, and the effect of that choice are an inseparable part of the work.
Lay people look at photography as a medium, when it is not. Photography is a discipline containing many mediums, and the artist is free to choose.
Dismissal of process as part and parcel of image is just as myopic as claiming a mediocre work is elevated somehow because of process.
__________________
--J Brunner, The Prints of Darkness
I liken this to a diver on a platform. Anyone can jump off and hit the water, at least I hope so. The tiling can be kinda hard.
But back on topic. We all learn our photography in different ways. Learn from a book, a teacher, a fellow photographer, dumb luck, we all create our processes and thought patterns. These are the experiences we all draw from. This is our craft. We stand on it as the diver stands on the platform.
The beauty of a perfect entry into the water can be likened to our end goal of vision and sensitivity to our subject matter. This is the art.
There are those that concern themselves with the make up of the platform on which we stand. There are those that are focused mainly on the beauty of the finished product. But I think a truly successful photographer, one who is true to their vision, can take their own craft and make a leap of faith based on that craft and reach their own artform. History and the public will decide for themselves the degree that they are touched by the art and may or may not appreciate the craft used in the approach to the subject. But I think that craft and art can coexist. In fact, I think that they truly have to sometimes.
Sometimes the process is critical in determining the impact and significance of a picture.
An ink-jet picture of a unicorn is worth a chuckle, particularly if it is well done.
A photograph of a unicorn is worth a million bucks. And it does not have to be perfect, just unambiguous.
__________________ Photography, the word itself, invented and defined by its author Sir John.F.W.Herschel, 14 March 1839 at the Royal Society, Somerset House, London. Quote "...Photography or the application of the Chemical rays of light to the purpose of pictorial representation,..". unquote.
Anyone who thinks their work is good art because of the process they use is pretty foolish. I don't acually know anyone who thinks that. I do know people who think one process is better than another.
I think any process has it's own unique visual language and a photo artist can lend a lot more power to his/her work by having a feeling for the process they are using. An image might work in one medium and not another because of how that medium conveys the image. You can't seperate process from the art as a maker of that art but it is annoying to show work and have people only interested in how you made it and decide whether it is good or not because of that. I work in pl/pd because I like the way it works and feels but it is very annoying that every time I have had an exhibit the gallery or exhibitor insists on emphasizing the process as the main point of interest. Personally I think the process is my business as an artist, not the viewers business.
Linear Mode
