Has Digital Photography hurt the sale of Paintings
Robert Genn's most recent newsletter is titled "what digital photography isn't". The first paragraph of his newsletter states "Several artists have written to suggest that the massive growth of digital photography might be de-popularizing fine art. "Digital photography," said one writer, "is using up everyone's creative energy."
Now whether or not that might be true, or actual meaningful in the fine art world, he goes on to quote the number of cell phones with built in cameras being sold last year as one billion and says that now one third of the world's population owns a digital camera. And then goes on to quote the number of photos uploaded to Facebook.
But for the life of me, I can't understand comparing snapshots taken with cell phone cameras, or snapshots uploaded to Facebook as competing with the sale of paintings. And at this point in time, how exactly is digital photography defined and how does it compare with photography.
Robert Genn's web site (where you can subscribe to his newsletter) is http://www.painterskeys.com/
Larry Berman
http://BermanGraphics.com
412-401-8100
Larry Berman
<a href="http://BermanGraphics.com">http://BermanGraphics.com</a>
412-401-8100
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Comments
Thanks Larry, I just spent way too much time on both websites.
I love fractals. I love the shapes, I love the colors, I love the patterns. They appeal to my color-driven mind.
Different strokes for different folks, but for me, I don't believe in luck. When the good things happen - and they do - I consider them to be gifts of Nature. I always say 'thank you.'
I agree with that, Rod. But it's the great photographer who is able to make pictures out of nothing.
Some great fractals
Kenneth Huff:
http://www.kennethahuff.com/
Janet Parke:
http://www.infinite-art.com
Larry Berman
Probably is true. Many of my best shots have nothing to do with planning at all, but just lucky coincidence. Having good light helps, but having a miracle happen in front of your eyes is better. But almost any photo can be created, given enough images to work with, enough skill and enough patience. It's an art form in itself, being able to put images together to make them more than the sum of their parts. Just like most other art, actually. In the old days, retouchers were like gods, because they had mad drawing skills, a great command of color matching and a sense of design, and how that translated into the real world. The best of them knew what would look real, and what would look fake. They worked with dyes and airbrush, and tiny little brushes, on unforgiving dye transfer prints, or even harder, in opaques on chromogenic prints. Photoshop takes a lot of those old techniques and makes them new again, and much easier to execute. But a bad draftsman is still a bad draftsman. Look for wrong light sources, odd shadows in different parts of an image, badly masked outlines where sometime was jammed into the image, motion in one section, and too sharp images in another...
Fractals are patterns described mathematically. Almost everything in nature has a fractal pattern. They never repeat, but they are infinitely symmetrical. Very tough to explain. A little like the universe within the universe within the universe... Think of patterns of frost on a winter windowpane. The applications have found their way into art, where sometimes it's just cut, copy, mirror and paste, and other times, like Dennis Brady's art, very artistic and creative.
The wikipedia article starts to describe it... fractals
LOL Jim, having met your wife, I understand the confusion.
I just remember an artist telling me he was so lucky to be at the right place at the right time for a particular shot and now I wonder if it is true.
And those pesky fractals??
Geri, why should it matter? If you want to shoot the sunrise, you still have to get up before dawn even if you use an iPhone to shoot it and Photoshop to edit it later.
There are lots of ways to tell if a sunset is real or not, but in the hands of a skilled artist, it is possible to fake. Usually the shadows are a giveaway. That said, before sunrise and after sunset, the shadows disappear to be replaced with a soft golden glow and a magical feeling of well being. Oh wait, I'm getting that mixed up with sex...
Well I am one of those that is getting suspicious about what I am seeing when I look at a photograph. Seeing all those apps for IPhone-ography makes me wonder.
Back in the olden days, a photographer had to get up before dawn to get the perfect sunrise. Or be at the perfect angle for all the colors of a sunset. Now I wonder how much pink has been added to a picture. With photoshop, how do I know if there was even a sunrise that day and it wasn't inserted into the picture?
And can anyone explain fractals to me??
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