my best effort to capture what pictorialist photography was like...
a real pictorialist!! heinrich kuhn. see how this resembles a painting?
so, the subject on the brain today: photography.
A very strange art, concerning discovery and innovation. Light and shadow. Man, machine, and image.
Imagine the world when photography exploded into a fad. Can you imagine how jarring realistic images must have been? People didn’t know how to read photographs– they read them like paintings. Photography “exhibits” displayed small, framed prints thrown onto large walls. Instead of one or two prints per wall, there were tons of them, floor to ceiling – the “good” photographers aimed for viewer’s eyeline.
this is what pictorialism was all about. trying to assuage the stark exactness and details of photographic representation. even tones, selective focus, bland images - boring colors. etc. (ok, so it isn't my style)
I ask questions about photography, and the questions lead to more questions.
For example:
How does one classify photography? A means of mass communication, a mechanic process, an artistic process, a scientific process... One of the very few arts that can claim objectivity. This must have pissed all those highly subjective impressionists OFF. Freedom from the artist – it’s about the machine and the process.
I ask questions about photography, and the questions lead to more questions.
For example:
How does one classify photography? A means of mass communication, a mechanic process, an artistic process, a scientific process... One of the very few arts that can claim objectivity. This must have pissed all those highly subjective impressionists OFF. Freedom from the artist – it’s about the machine and the process.
So wtf? Is it a form of information or artistic expression?
Only in the second quarter of the twentieth century was the medium considered study-able. Nobody recorded the history of photography until the 1930’s. In the early 1900’s absolutely no museums had photography sections. Now, most of them do.
The layman’s art – anyone can do it! Grab a Kodak, a snapshot camera, and make a moment. Joe Blow is the next Da Vinci –
This must have INFURIATED artists who spent years and years honing their artistic skill.
Anyway, a little food for thought. Above is one of my favorite pictorialists and probably the raciest image i could find. look at that bod! hot.
Only in the second quarter of the twentieth century was the medium considered study-able. Nobody recorded the history of photography until the 1930’s. In the early 1900’s absolutely no museums had photography sections. Now, most of them do.
The layman’s art – anyone can do it! Grab a Kodak, a snapshot camera, and make a moment. Joe Blow is the next Da Vinci –
This must have INFURIATED artists who spent years and years honing their artistic skill.
Anyway, a little food for thought. Above is one of my favorite pictorialists and probably the raciest image i could find. look at that bod! hot.
good deed today: slipping nice notes into random books at the library. 5.
9 comments:
This is so coincidental, I just went to a photography exhibit today. These 4 people dressed up in red vinyl coats and one with a gorilla mask, well the photographer recorded the observations via camera. I still don't really understand. But this blog made me think twice about it.
The notes in library books is the most awesome idea ever! I wish I would find an uplifting note in a book. That would just make my day!
I am a huge nerd also. But I never told you that. It's a secret. ;)
I love photography. I took a few classes in Highschool...now mostly, I just take pictures for fun, not for art. Maybe I should get back into it. Hm.
Happy Friday!
Robs-
Painters are NOT pissed off at the immediate and realistic medium of photography. Photography for painters is usually a tool for painting OR can be its own art form. With a camera I too love to capture immediate shadows, expressions, movements- you just can't do that with a brush or a pencil no matter how quick at the draw you are.
Many painters I know though are pissed off by realistic painters like Calder and Wyeth and Coleville who make photos into paintings (although in my Libraness I love the trio)
I think this is because...
In the middle of the 19th century Impressionism grew out of (a group of)French painters who resisted the trend of realistic painting that had carried through from the fall of the Roman Empire, all that commissioned Catholic painting, until 1850 or so. And THEY (monet, pissaro, cezanne, etc.) were rejected from the Salon judging in Paris. So THAT made them pissed off and they started painting out of doors- plein air - capturing the moment without elaborate studio set ups. And this caught on...
love you so - mumms
hah what a show off...
=)
they were at the beginning!!! sally stein, my professor, told me. and she went to yale. twice.
Short Answer: Photography means different things for different people.
IMO: I am always so amazed by how subjective it really is. Some people have adopted very traditional practices.....and others are looking for and inventing new ways to express themselves photographically......Oh yeah, and then there's all those other people in between.
I think it started out as a way to document generations, and as the years went on, the desire to refine the process increased, eventually, so did the market. Sheez, it was supposed to be a short answer.....
What's so great about photography is that it is so versatile.
i love nerds!
photography...bearing witness, taking notice of moments otherwise fleeting.
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