Comments on: On Art(s) And Craft(s)

By: my week in review « The Rock Photographers

my week in review « The Rock Photographers — Mon, 25 May 2009 04:42:08 +0000

[...] to check it out, id even say you should follow him. anyway, you can see the blog entry yourself HERE. david also just published his first book, titled Within the Frame. i just got it from amazon [...]

By: A fotografia é arte? « pulseandvision:blog

A fotografia é arte? « pulseandvision:blog — Thu, 21 May 2009 10:23:21 +0000

[...] questão é muito sensível de ser analisada de uma forma leviana, contudo gostava de deixar aqui a perspectiva pessoal de David duChemin, fotógrafo canadiano, que muito admiro o seu trabalho e pensamento fotográficos, sobre a questão [...]

By: Michael Warth

Michael Warth — Wed, 20 May 2009 21:40:22 +0000

David,

I always find it strange how this discussion never comes up at a art league, or art organization meeting. Photographers in general are the only “artists” who have trouble naming their medium as art (my opinion). I am a painter…I paint decorative pictures in oil, on canvas. Am I an artist because I paint or am I an artists because I make pictures? Am I an artist at all? I tend to think so. I see photography as art even though a lot of photographers think of themselves as “crafters” or simply “technicians” with a tool. You create, you find a moment and capture it with the expectation that it is to be viewed by others. How is that not art? With the exception of casual picture taking (such as capturing moments for an album or recording a family event) I think anytime a photographer plans to process the image he/she sees as a decorative piece it is art.

To me this is a loaded discussion…if one is a painter, photographer, or sculptor they simply need to define what art is to them and if they choose to create art then create it. Over analyzing the term “art” can paralyze the creative soul. Art is a commodity, a product, a decoration, or result of a process “crafted” by the artist. There is a buyer for every type of art, why should anyone wait for the buyer to call the product art? Sorry David, the comedian analogy doesn’t work for me. Whether you were good or not, you got on stage as a comedian. Some laughed, some did not, just like art. Some like it and some do not…but as artists we get up there and try anyway.

I say if you have trouble calling it art then don’t. But if you create a product in order to sell or create it as art then call yourself an artist and be content with your decision. Never decide for someone else, it is not your decision, art is a personal thing.

By: sd

sd — Wed, 20 May 2009 16:29:53 +0000

Good post, David. Why care if it’s art? Let our creative work be whatever it is. I have more meaningful things to do than worry about the definition of art. The topic is addressed largely by esoterics, academics, and the self-important.

By: Anirban Chatterjee

Anirban Chatterjee — Wed, 20 May 2009 03:32:27 +0000

David thats a really thought provoking post indeed.
IMO there is a real thin line between craft and art.
Craft is something where one has a preconceived destination and uses techniques or processes with his/her own aesthetics and sensibilites to reach there. A simple example will be while making a sunset photograph, I may change the WB to Fluoroscent to add drama. And that adding drama is targetted to bring out emotions in my audience. So when I do that I know that it will evoke emotions from my audience. In this case if the audience does not evoke emotions, it is my failure as a craftsman. So in this case, the myself as photographer is a craftsman.
Art to me is more of reaching for the unknown (and for doing that I need to know my craft well). Like okie what happens if I shake my camera while taking a landscape photo. I know it will create blur but I don’t know how it will look like. Say I do that and look at a particular frame and like it. I like it because it clicks with my aesthetics. And now when I show it to my audience there will be a few people who will like it and a few who won’t. Primarily because it will depend on their aesthetics. If it matches they like it…if it doesn’t, they won’t like it. But in this case, I as a photographer is an artist. I explored possibilities. To me if people like it it makes me a successful artist otherwise a less successful one. But an artist nevertheless.
So to me all photographers are craftman primarily. Whether I want to be an artist is purely my choice.
Apology for such a long comment.

By: Joe

Joe — Wed, 20 May 2009 03:03:34 +0000

First of all, I’m really glad for everyone to chime in on this discussion. David, you really tripped the trigger on this one! =P

Hopefully without triggering another argument on whether art is absolute or relative, here’s a thought:

Should art be deemed successful if you get the intended message across to your audience? What if it reaches beyond the intended audience, and they give it different meaning? (think of all those paintings people discover way after the artist’s death, with books written about them but nobody could verify?)

I think art is ‘good’ if it reaches a wide audience, so that even your layman can find meaning in it (universality), but even better if it reaches the intended audience group specifically, and stirs a deep gripping emotion or even understanding in them.

To me, an artist who manages to grip the world, is a hero, even if they have not thought of that while making the image. Don’t blush, David, but I believe some of your work has done exactly that =]

By: Larry Larsen

Larry Larsen — Tue, 19 May 2009 20:47:49 +0000

Okay, give me my turtleneck and beret. I’m a snob! to say that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder dismisses the sophistication level of the beholder. If the audience does not get the humor is it because they don’t understand the language or politics well enough? If they don’t understand the language, does that make it less funny? What is the level of their education? Am I to doff my beret to the lowest common denominator? Who is the audience? Who is the grand poobah who is defining, and by what authority? My endeavor as an artist is to refine my craft and my aesthetic sensibilities. Hopefully that will be reflected in my images.

By: Jeroen Berkenbosch

Jeroen Berkenbosch — Tue, 19 May 2009 20:22:15 +0000

Interesting article, thanks I was discussing this exact thing earlier this day.

Oh by the way, sorry I’ve got to be the ‘grammar nazi’, but it’s Van Gogh, and not Van Gough

By: Barry Sherbeck

Barry Sherbeck — Tue, 19 May 2009 20:09:00 +0000

The last house we lived in was built to mediocre standards with cheap materials but it was still a house. It was not something for which any self-respecting professional carpenter would be proud, nor win awards.

Similarly, most of us have seen examples on the mediocre side of art — not determined only by how much we personally liked or disliked it, but because mediocre art often reveals a less-thorough or less-capable attempt at artistic expression – something less than a high level of creative ability and/or effort on the part of the artist.

I’ve known artists who exert only a portion of what they are capable. Other artists seem to invest everything they’ve got but the result is not very compelling to “most” eyes.

What each artist creates is still ART, I would say, but on its own merits perhaps less than it might have been. A somewhat lost opportunity, like overcooked rubbery eggs are not the best use of eggs.

We each are given different talents and levels of talent, and we develop and exercise those talents to widely varying degrees.

If I carelessly photograph with rudimentary skills which I’m not developing and without honing a concept for what I wish to communicate, my art will rightly be perceived on the whole as mediocre. But if have some photographic ability to begin with and put my passion into it, keep learning, keep improving my expertise, and pay at least some attention to how my art is received by people I want to “reach,” that’s all I can expect of myself. Some people still won’t care for some of my photographs; many others will.

Meanwhile, I will have had the time of my life hopefully making each new image a little better than the ones before.

Great discussion David and everyone, thanks.

By: Bruce Hemingway

Bruce Hemingway — Tue, 19 May 2009 18:44:06 +0000

History is littered with the carcasses of those who were considered the leading artists of their day– only to be confined to the dustbins of the past by the distance that time brings to culture’s judgment. Wait long enough, and the mere fact of the artifact’s survival makes it art.

Next week probably isn’t long enough…