Photo Exhibition Blog

The jury is out as to whether photographic artists are born or taught. Whether you know how to use a camera is not the issue - it has more to do with the way you use your eyes.

Photographic art sounds a bit like a misnomer. How can some automated process allow room for creativity? The answer lies in the eyes of the beholder of course plus the fact that if you give the same camera to 5 people in front of the same subject you will get 5 different takes on the same topic - each giving away the slant or bias of that individual.

So there we have it. On one hand, with autofocus, light compensating automated cameras, all opportunities for errors have been removed (so we are told...) but on the other hand since I hold the camera and decide the exact timing of when I release the shutter I create a unique picture out of all the other possibilities.

If I use this opportunity for the purpose of being creative - then it becomes art.

Photo-journalism is the realm of reporters hunting sights which are deemed to be news-worthy.

Photo-art is the realm of artists who have trained their eye to capture whatever is uncanny, out of balance, beautiful or intriguing to make it artistic. That screens out all those left over shots that were bad takes.

So what would be the standard to say a picture is artistic? A simple answer would be: whether it conveys the passion of the artist or not.

If I cannot get you excited about what I am passionate about then my images have no artistic value. As a consequence not everything you see in a modern art museum is art - insofar as the taste of a given visitor is concerned.

The final question is: if I am a budding artist and I consider myself an artist and not a tourist, then how do I sharpen my artistic abilities?

It has to do with fanning your passion into flames. How passionate are you to capture that one shot that will make the afternoon well worth it? What subject are you hunting down to death to extract that moment out of time where things seem to hold up in thin air? How committed are you to your cause to expose a sight worth sharing? How many times did you walk around a subject to capture that unusual angle which reveals a new facet to an otherwise mundane topic?

Come on - make my day. Go out with your camera and don't come back unless you have something worthwhile.