Yes, Photography is Art!

 

When I completed the book "Another Way of Telling," I immediately picked up the Aperture Masters of Photography book, "Alfred Stieglitz" and read the essay by Dorothy Norman. For Stieglitz, a photograph reflects what "one truly and most sacredly experiences oneself." He fought beginning in the 1880's for the stature of photography as an art form, a means of "expression to be respected in its own right, on the same basis as any other art form."


And speaking in the 1930's yet even more poignant for today's photographer, Alfred said that "Personally, I like my photographs straight, unmanipulated, devoid of all tricks ... But should any one want to go to his own particular photographic hell in his own particular way - manipulated, hybrid or whatever - I say, "Got to it. But go to it for all you are worth, the harder the better, insisting on your right of way without necessarily disregarding all traffic lights. And if you must disregard even those, I say: 'Go ahead full speed!'

Journey On!

Is Photography Art?

I just finished reading a provocative book by John Berger and Jean Mohr entitled "Another Way of Telling." Through several essays and several hundred photographs (mostly by Jean, augments by other photographers including Andre Kertesz), the author (John) and photographer (Jean) discuss photography as "fact" and limitations and ambiguities of photos. A very philosophical read so say the least. The section that caught my eye the most deals with photography as art.  Paul Strand thought of himself as an artist. Bruce Davidson thought his photos do no "pose as art." John Berger himself states that he does not consider photography as art, but rather "quote from appearances."

Personally, I do view photography as an art form and that I am an artist.  Now, does that mean that all 100 million photos taken in the average day are all art?  Well, no.  But when taken purposely, using one's vision, coupled with technical skills learned over time, a photograph becomes more than a snapshot, but becomes a creation of the photographer, the artist. The most powerful photographs, be it of a landscape or a person, convey emotion. This can be the f64 stillness of Yosemite or the blur of a peasant girl running beside a train in Indonesia hoping for something to change in her life (see Jean's photograph of pages 73-74 of the book this photo that will stick in my mind for a long time). The photographer conveys the emotion - conservation, concern for others, happiness, solitude, joy, sadness, love, hate, peace.  And if that's not art, well ...

Three For One

I've been examining photographs that I originally shot in 2007 for a potential new photo book.  One of the many photographs that caught my eye years ago was, nonetheless, not quite "right" to my eye. I loved the motion of the Asian dancers but the considerable blank space in the middle was a bit discomforting. Still, I liked it but never did anything with it, like print or share.

Then came this evening. I reexamined the photo some seven years after its initial creation (that IS what photographers do, by the way - create!) to see what I could do.  And, not fearing to crop, I saw that the original actually contained within it two singular photos - the dancers on the right and the dance on the left. I love the cacaphany of colors in the right hand figures, and the barely visible yet recognizable face of the main dancer. Did a little bit of exposure compensation to bring out the colors a bit more, but otherwise as shot.
 

 

 

I then focused on the figure on the left and while an equally colorful subject, I did some experimentation and ended up with another point of view - that of emphasizing the motion, deemphasizing the color, and making it more ethereal. 

So, with one click of the shutter, three photographs emerged.  Would it have been better to have taken three separate photos - one of the groups (as shot), one of the dancers on the right, one of the dancer on the left? Oh, ideally, especially if one wants to do large scale enlargements.  But during a performance, there's not always time (actually, rarely the time) to set up images in advance. Work with what you have.

A Goal Finally Realized

In March of this year, on the spur-of-the-moment, I joined ten other photographers on a journey to the Hilo area of the Big Island of Hawaii, lea by Doug Beasley. One of my intentions was to create a black-and-white portfolio of images from this journey. But as I've told my own photo students in the digital photo era, always shoot in color; you can always convert to black-and-white later, while the reverse only works if your hand tint!  So, I created hundreds of color images during the ten days among the sun (occasionally), rain (pretty much every day), sand (lots of days), and adventures (daily) of the trip.  And I was pretty pleased with the results. 

But, the original intent of creating black-and-white images was still out there.  (BTW, it's interesting to note that half of the participants in the journey did create black-and-white or sepia-toned photographs during the journey; though all of their original digital files were color.)  So, I've been working with a half dozen of my favorite Hilo-area photos over the past week to see what works in black-and-white or another technique that I called "faded color." The latter tones down the color saturation (by color channel) and keeps a modicum of the principal color(s) while making the rest of the photo black-and-white. 

 

Bamboo with such a touch of the yellow-orange stocks and a very light touch of green leaves.

 

A morning sunrise over the ever-present clouds from the local beach. It was dramatic enough to survive a full desaturation.

 

A canopied-roadway where I toned down the brilliant green leaves, and the fallen brown leaves, and then added a bit of blur (actually de-clarified the image in Lightroom) for a more mystical feeling.

 

More bamboo trees, emphasizing their verticality yet keeping just a touch of the yellow-green leaves. 

 

A grave marker that went from a brilliant color splash of the flower to a pure geometric image when converted to black-and-white.

Finally, my favorite photo from the entire trip, where the small statue had been soft but rough grey-green but now appears from out of the surrounding darkness with the crystal beads still shining.

 

In case you're curious about the original color photographs, well, here they are.  I purposely didn't line them up for comparison sake, since I enjoy both versions.  But I also wanted to be true to my original intent - emphasizing graphic images, not necessarily color.  And I think I've been able to achieve that - while still creating great color photos as well!

 

 

Mahalo!

Great Photo App

While I primarily process my photographs using Adobe Lightroom which has amazing capabilities, I've come across an iPhone/iPad app that's pretty amazing in and of itself.  Its called Snapseed, and it is quick to learn and really easy to use. I took one of my favorite coastal photographs, shot in color with my Nikon D300 and transferred it to my iPad. I then converted it to black and white and used the yellow filter to bring "snap" to the final photograph.  And like all good photo software, when I saved it, Snapseed created a new file and didn't override the original color photo.  While I'm still really happy with the color version, the B+W version is pretty cool as well.  The app is free is available for for both iPad/iPhone and Android users.  It was available at one time for PCs/Macs but that version is no longer available. Too bad. 

 

Panoramas

While I've had my iPhone 5 for a while (early adaptor for a change), I didn't realize that the phone's camera had a panorama feature until more recently. I've been experimenting with the feature and have a few thoughts.  First, its pretty cool.  Second, you need to pay a lot of attention to the foreground which can take on unexpected prominence. Third, you need to move the iPhone steadily to maximize the usable vertical space (if you don't hold it steady as you sweep the scene, you get black spaces on the top or bottom that then need to be cropped, further reducing the usable vertical image). Fourth, don't overdue it! Panoramas are really designed to capture an overall horizontal scene and are quite effective at it. But those are pretty isolated cases.  Fifth, panoramas make good banners for your website (see this sites banner!) or your Facebook timeline. Sixth, experiment!   

The beach just north of the Santa Monica pier.

Window Rock, Navajo Reservation, Arizona

Bainbridge Island Museum of Art Opens

Bainbridge Island has always been a creative community - dance, music, theater, writing.  Now you can add the visual arts!  The Bainbridge Island Museum of Art opened this past Friday, at the corner of SR-305 and Winslow Way, just a short walk from downtown and from the ferry terminal.  And I'm pleased to say that I have nine photographs included in the opening show - six in the community gallery on the 1st floor and three additional ones near the classroom upstairs.  Its great and a bit humbling to be included among the amazing artists represented in this space.  Hopefully you'll have a chance to visit the museum this summer (the opening exhibits will be up until sometime in September).  More info on the museum can be found at: http://www.biartmuseum.org/