Photography: Art or Craft?

[Alan Edward Klein]

That's just it, nobody does if you think about it. If you say "painting is an art" chances are most people will agree with you. Of course some might start to get too technical, dissect your sentence etc, but overall I think most will agree with you.

It is certainly not my intention with this question to "define" art, or photography in the context of art..etc, etc.

What took me by surprised and made me curious is that this opinion existed in the Large Format forum. Supposedly it is the pinnacle of photography, where the supposed photgraphers have the reputation of taking the most care when making a photograph and are supposedly the most ruthless when editing the images they plan to show. Yet, apparently they go to all this trouble and dont consider what they do an art.

Am I the only one who finds this strange? I never had any doubts that photography is an art. Of course it makes use of "tools" but to me the end result, a print, is an art object much like a painting or a sculpture when done with that end in mind.

SO I think you misunderstood my question, I dont want to "quantify" art or photgraphy as art, what I am really interested to know id how you
feel deep inside you about photography. There is no need to explain, qualify or make a disertation.

Ed, thank you for the courtesy of expanding on your answer. A moron at pn simply answered "who knows/who cares", the funny thing is that this bufoon calls himself a fine art photographer....lol....

I think when you start a poll and ask people's opinions, you shouldn't call a person whose opinion you disagree with a "buffoon". You should show respect for their views.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

The furniture issue is actually more difficult than I'm making it out to be. There are many museums with furniture, clothing, etc., and architecture is in the same category.

The MOMA exhibits suggest that the industrial design is the art, and the manufacture of the furniture is the craft.

More generally, the thing that makes these kinds of things interesting is usually something beyond their functionality, such as design, surface, etc. On the other hand, some would say that the most interesting forms are those that follow function, so it may not be possible to separate form and function in a chair, building, or evening gown.

The "fine" (as opposed to "applied") art photograph, painting, sculpture, or musical or literary work, however, has no function other than to be itself. Of course few works are really that straightforward in their intentionality, or they wouldn't be interesting.

Even a fine photograph that could be considered only art could have the function of filling up an empty-looking room or wall. Homeowners do this all the time with paintings and photographs and other tchotchkes.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

Yikes. This thread is 19 years old. Long enough from my photos to turn from craft to art.

 

[jnamia]

Even a fine photograph that could be considered only art could have the function of filling up an empty-looking room or wall. Homeowners do this all the time with paintings and photographs and other tchotchkes.

that's the only function of a "art" photograph, it serves no other function / purpose other than to be "art" . unless it was being used as a screen to cover up the watermarks or burn stains on the walls left by the previous tenants.

I think when you start a poll and ask people's opinions, you shouldn't call a person whose opinion you disagree with a "buffoon". You should show respect for their views.

nah this is 2022 far worse is said here on this site and elsewhere.

I miss Jorge.

Same here. He might have been a ULF shooting, film loving, hot-head but he gained a lot of points for the way acted after meeting Chris Jordon and seeing his Ink / Pigment Prints, and he kept his word!

 

[Sirius Glass]

Tri-X is not good non-prewashed in replenished XTOL on Jobo because I once tried it and didn't like it.

Kodak and Jobo both agree that Tri-X with replenished XTOL processed in the Jobo processor should not be prewashed based on each's research and development.

 

[radiant]

Kodak and Jobo both agree that Tri-X with replenished XTOL processed in the Jobo processor should not be prewashed based on each's research and development.

Can you refer to a book that is has not been printed in 20 years and costs few hundred bucks at ebay and is only shipped inside US?

 

[Sirius Glass]

Can you refer to a book that is has not been printed in 20 years and costs few hundred bucks at ebay and is only shipped inside US?

Tistley(?) book on Rotary Processing. I can get more information when I am back home.

 

[Jim Jones]

Trying to distinguish between art and craftsmanship is futile: they are too interdependent. Art with inadequate craftsmanship fails to convey the artistic intentions of the artist to most viewers. Fine craftsmanship should produce a response in humans that goes beyond sterile perfection.

Perhaps we should put the argument of which is better, art or craftsmanship, until the next generation with million dollar computers and a few hundred dollars worth of materials can replicate a da Vinci painting that cannot be distinguished from the original by a human eye.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Trying to distinguish between art and craftsmanship is futile: they are too interdependent. Art with inadequate craftsmanship fails to convey the artistic intentions of the artist to most viewers. Fine craftsmanship should produce a response in humans that goes beyond sterile perfection.

Perhaps we should put the argument of which is better, art or craftsmanship, until the next generation with million dollar computers and a few hundred dollars worth of materials can replicate a da Vinci painting that cannot be distinguished from the original by a human eye.

Art and craft are both present, but the proportion varies with each individual and yet absent when people just take snapshots.

 

[jnamia]

Trying to distinguish between art and craftsmanship is futile: they are too interdependent. Art with inadequate craftsmanship fails to convey the artistic intentions of the artist to most viewers. Fine craftsmanship should produce a response in humans that goes beyond sterile perfection.

Perhaps we should put the argument of which is better, art or craftsmanship, until the next generation with million dollar computers and a few hundred dollars worth of materials can replicate a da Vinci painting that cannot be distinguished from the original by a human eye.

Hi Jim

This might be sacrilegious but one might say some of the photographs made by Shore (his road trip stuff) Winograd (take your pick) and Eggelston (take your pick) even Lartrigue's race car (taken when he was 10) are snapshots, haphazard compositions (sometimes) slanted horizon (sometimes ). Some might say there really is no craft involved when everything is shot from the hip yet they have been elevated to "art" status. It is funny that mundane snapshots printed gigantic can sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars, and if they are minuscule and made as Dye Transfer prints, even more. Maybe that's the art? doing something that seems like it took no effort other than being at the right place at the right time with any camera and pushing the button ... having a name (or $$$$ ) so no matter what you do it gets realized doesn't hurt.
Im certain someone right now can replicate Leonardo's paintings with a computer or by hand. There is a movie on Netflix right now about a copyist whose work sold for millions through a prestigious NYC art gallery, and there's the whole B0b Ross controversy where allegedly warehouses of paintings made by people after he passing have his signature on them... not saying the copyist and Bob Ross are Leonardo but they're pretty close.