blog.glorious-landscape.comFine Art Photography

As a Musician of many years who now concentrates on Photography, I can say that the same hang-ups over what to call ourselves and our work are present in both art forms. Lots of musicians don’t call themselves artists, but of course they are.

In the online photography community there is a serious hang-up over the term Professional, which I’ll not get into, because there is no right answer. Some define the term as someone that makes their living with Photography, and others use it as a term to indicate a level of experience.

I’m more interested in the term Fine Art, and this is even tougher to define. Right from the start, having -Fine- in the term causes problems, because of the qualitative connotations. After-all, it’s Fine Art, not pretty good Art. So it sounds like it’s all about how good it is, but that path is wrought with problems as the tendency will be to formularize every aspect of photography.

Which qualities are the ones I need in Photography to be able to call a print Fine Art? Sharpness, composition, perfect color palette, a certain depth of field, paper type, the mat or frame, etc. Maybe five hours of color correction in Photoshop will make it Fine Art. If we go down this road, when is enough enough?

Actually I don’t believe that Fine Art refers to some formula of perfect photographic mechanics. If you can stand a Jazz analogy – some tone purists criticized Miles Davis for the quality of his sound. It was airy at times. (Think noisy in terms of photography.) However, once you got over your hangup about his non-orchestral sound, you could start to see that the airy sound introduced an artistic element, or a unique quality that made Miles Davis something special. The air in his tone became part of his art.

He broke the so-called rules and made art.

Dictionary.com has this to say about Fine Art: a visual art considered to have been created primarily for aesthetic purposes and judged for its beauty and meaningfulness

That definition partially works for me, and I find the idea of Intent especially important. Beyond Intent, which I already have, my current and personal criteria for my own work:

1. It must have a spark of life. If the paper opened and the photo took a breath, I wouldn’t be surprised. Startled maybe :^}
2. It must have the highest quality presentation

Ok, so I introduced a personal rule of quality here, but of course there is nothing wrong with quality. What Fine Art is NOT is a list of rules defining quality in all aspects of photography. (as in noise-free, perfectly sharp, etc)

Alain Briot’s comments on this subject are insightful. I mentioned to him that his definition should really be in the dictionary. Not that everyone will agree, but even the dictionary shows multiple usages for words and terms.

For me a fine art photograph is one that is done with the goal of creating a work of art. It is an image that is done with a high level of craftmanship and care. It has to be mounted and matted to museum standards, in an archival manner.

Above all the cost should take a second seat to the concern for quality. Fine art is about quality, not about quantity. It is not about trying to save money by buying lower-priced inks, paper, matboard and other supplies. It is about creating the finest piece you can create, regardless of cost.

The goal is an artistic rendering of a subject in the finest manner possible.

Regardless of price and cost, a fine art print should sing. It should have a lyrical quality. It should transport you to a different place. It should open a window on another world, the world the artist is inviting the audience into.

This strikes a balance that I like, and puts the idea of Quality in the right perspective. Please leave your own comments on this subject.

- Mark Esposito (Oct 2009)
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One of the reasons I love color photography is due to the unique emotional impact it produces when done right. Of course doing it right has some tough challenges, from the camera to the computer, to the print, the mat and the frame. Lots of ways to get frustrated along the way. I guess this is why lots of photographers stop at the computer. Mastering the camera alone is hard enough. Add to that Photoshop and all of the other software you need, and the challenge is daunting. If anything, that’s an understatement. So what’s this got to do with color? Well, making an emotional connection with color is a huge technical challenge, not just artistic. It’s not as easy as it looks.

Technical Challenges

if you’re not interested in a technical discussion, skip down to the next section

Camera technology has always offered latitude when it comes to reproducing the colors that we see. At the same time that means there is imprecision. With film, one type produces more highly saturated colors while another does better with skin tones. Digital photography has even more latitude up front by allowing for quick adjustments in how the camera will record color. With either technology colors can be adjusted on the computer. So the color in a Fine Art print is NOT simply a WYSIWYG process. The challenge of producing an emotional connection with color starts out as a technical one, and then becomes an artistic one.

Why is color such a technical challenge? You can’t find a camera that perfectly handles white balance in every situation, and has a perfectly calibrated sensor or film, and never under or overexposes. So it’s still up to the Artist to figure out how to represent or reproduce color, whether the goal is to be completely accurate, or to represent a personal vision. In the case of the photo shown above, you’re seeing what I saw as closely as I could represent it. In this case, for me, no personal vision could compete with what was already there, at least from the perspective of color.

To add to the difficulties, JPEG, the most common file format for photography, by design throws away some of the color information in a photo in order to compress the file to make it smaller. It therefore can’t perfectly represent nuances in color. In some cases it can’t represent the color at all, because it threw away the hue of a color by averaging other colors in the same area during compression. In Fine Art color photography, where color is one of the key components, we can’t afford to throw anything away. (By the way, the RAW file format does NOT throw anything away, so that is the preferred format for Fine Art Photography) I’m not bad-mouthing JPEG though. It works just fine for other print media, like most magazines and Wedding albums.

What about the paper? Even the highest quality paper has it’s unique attributes, which means that it’s going to take the ink differently. Some papers are matte, some glossy, and others in-between, and the same print on each of these will look very different. These all have an impact on the colors.

The Emotion of color

Now to the artistic side of this discussion. Black & White photography produces a range of emotional responses, sometimes very powerful. I’m not sure that they are the same responses that color might produce. That’s hard to figure out. For me there is something different with color. Of course it’s silly to think that all emotional responses are measurable or exactly reproducible between people. Obviously emotions belong to the viewer, and they are highly personal, and often based on experience. However, there must be some commonality as lots of people tend to respond in similar ways to certain attributes of art that is well-done, especially color.

I can’t put my finger on why the Tulips photo shown above evokes such an intense feeling (in me), but I know for sure that it’s the colors that are doing it. How about the composition? There is definitely a composition, and I’m sure it plays an important role, but I’d like that to be invisible. The foreground tulip has been isolated in a background bed of supporting colors, rather than a staged black background. Just as important, there is no outside world, just color. The composition doesn’t lead me to consider the outside world. No sky, no people, no environment. Maybe that’s why I like it. Rather than looking at it compositionally, I only want to enjoy the colors and the feeling that I could live inside that scene forever. I’ll need a waiter though!

To the Designer of all designers, and the creator of color and light – Thank you!

- Mark Esposito

Comments welcome