urban ku # 150 ~ you can email, but, you can't hide
Tuesday, December 11, 2007 at 10:59AM 
An ugly 'truth' • click to embiggenI occasionally get email comments about topics / entries on The Landscapist. There is no problem with that but don't let that make you thing that I won't use my 'Sunshine' prerogative in order to shed a broader light of day upon the thing.
That said, here's an interesting take on the a pile of steaming stinking meadow muffins entry -
I have to say that this entry has gotten Ray and I talking quite a bit and all we do is come up with alternate questions.
The first is: "When did photography become art?"
Let me go back and say that Ray believes that the gist of the matter is that: using Photoshop and other means to modify an image that was taken alters said image - and thus, the image is not a true "photograph"... a true "photograph" would be created when one set up their camera at 4 am - to capture the correct light, choose the right lens for the shot ... click - develop - print and voile you have a photograph.
His belief is that photographers of old would adjust their images in the darkroom - and that to a certain degree was "cheating."
So the thrust is that technical advancement has undermined photography.
OK - so another question of mine - or a corollary to the original is: wouldn't the use of a lens or filter then also be a technical advancement that undermines true photography? Wouldn't all photography have to be taken from a box with a couple of holes in it? - and anything else would be "art photography"?
In your blog - you are discussing an article that: The author, the painter and gadfly art critic Peter Plagens, wasn't really asking if the entire medium of photography was dead. No, whether he meant to or not, he was really inquiring if that segment of the medium known as 'straight' photography - 'the last art form to be tethered to realism' was dead.
He's a painter, you say. This is a statement regarding oil painting from a person on the web who is a oil painting purist: Stop looking at modern art and stop loving it. Modern bright colors and hue contrasts destroy the subtle vision of the painter who risks to study classical painting in our time.
Original oil painters ground mineral and then mixed them with a drying oil. The Flemish technique (1400's) is the first true "technique" developed - it includes a 7 layer process that is considered by purists of the art - "the only true way to create a painting." - complete with: Before each new layer the canvas (ideally dried during 7 weeks) is carefully wiped with a half of an onion (in order to prepare the dried surface to absorb better) and then with linseed oil.
All the new advancements of pre-mixed paint are aberrations to some - but certainly, this isn't the thought of the majority.
Another thought that Ray and I discussed was, "If you're camping in the woods and need to make a fire. A purist would demand that you hunt for two rocks - which when struck together would spark and thus, ignite your kindling. Others may choose to pull out their Bic and light the thing. You have created a fire, it's still warming you, you can still cook by it, it's still creating the same ambiance as the alternate fire would. The importance of the act is determined primarily by the person lighting it...."
In my opinion, lighting a fire with rocks is a neat trick - but, it's the fire (outcome, deliverable, art) that is of the most importance. (end of email)
Any comments, of the non-email variety?
Reader Comments (1)
I agree all round (I think). As I said over at T.O.P. "technology moves on as do the practitioners." If we were to limit "true" arts to "traditional" materials, by inference we'd be back painting on cave walls. If we also extended to architecture, we'd still be living in the caves, too.
If the outcome pleases, it shouldn't matter about the means to the end.
The only thing I have little truck with is passing off "manipulated" images as the truth (as opposed to a truth) - I'm thinking along the lines of the photojournalism frauds, or maybe the "saturation to 11" autumn shots.