Fine Art Photography
Photography is an egalitarian field, everyone can take snaps. They may not be great pictures, but the practice of taking photographs has become extraordinarily simple. Therefore, the big question is what makes a picture qualify as a fine art photograph. Most people have attempted to clarify it in a rough way, a path that may be prudent to follow. I would like to describe two fine art photographs in this paper: one that I liked and one that I disliked.
Fig 1: A fine art landscape photograph I like (20 Beautiful Examples of Fine Art Photography, 2014)
I like this landscape photograph by David Heger. This fine art photograph portrays the drying out of the vegetation and the darkening of the sky. The photograph makes the picture appear as if it is dark, but from what is evident in the photo, the sun is evident. The photograph also shows a little child watching a man who is hanging on the air covering himself with an umbrella. The picture begins with a message or an idea of what it wants to demonstrate. The intentions of the photographer are encoded into the photograph. This landscape picture demonstrates a comprehensive reflection on how human beings destroy the environment and how the environment destroys them. The little child is looking up to the older person as her hope for the future. Another thing I like about the photograph is how the photographer was able to capture everything in the landscape. The horizon and the mountains are clearly visible in the photograph. Lastly, the way Heger makes the image seem faded, dull, torn and otherwise manipulated portrays to display his technical excellence in the field of fine arts. In summary, I like this photograph of fine art because of the method applied to encode its message into the photograph. As a student of the arts, the artistic approaches used in this photograph are subversive to the images instead of dominating it (Bright, 2005).
Fig 2: Typical 19th century Sardinian Houses (Guilhem, 2014)
I dislike the fine art photograph of the typical nineteenth-century Sardinian houses. First, I do not find any meaning that the picture conveys. By this, I do not connote an external appearance, but a profound meaning conveyed by the picture. The photographer was not able to capture the whole structure of the Sardinian houses. The photograph omits the most important area of a house; the roof. Various forms of roofing distinguished most of the ancient Sardinian houses, an aspect that this photograph does not display. I would suggest that the framing in this picture was carried out devoid of checking via the viewfinder of the camera as it was concealed However, his objective of demonstrating the front side of the house as it was seemed loud and clear in the picture and his approach evident in it. I like fine art photographs, not because of their appearance but because of their content (Grenfell & Hardy, 2007). This picture fails to provide me with an understanding of the photographer’s choice of contents in his picture. The contents of the picture are barely visible due to the darkness in the photograph. The photograph evidence that the photographer failed to make important choices concerning film choice, saturation, and the picture frame. I dislike this photograph of fine art because of the method applied to encode its message into the photograph. As a student of arts, the artistic approaches used in this photograph are dominating to the image instead of displaying it.
References
20 Beautiful Examples of Fine Art Photography. (2014). Retrieved from http://inspirationhut.net/inspiration/20-beautiful-examples-of-fine-art-photography-by-20-different-artists/
Bright, S. (2005). Art photography now. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Grenfell, M., & Hardy, C. (2007). Art rules: Pierre Bourdieu and the visual arts. London: Berg.
Guilhem, R. (2014). The good, the bad and the ugly. Retrieved from http://artetic.net/2014/03/15/the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/