According to dictionaries, the words "artist" and "craftsman" overlap each other in their meanings. A craftsman, so says Dictionary.com, is 1) a person who practices or is highly skilled in a craft; 2) an artist.
Maybe the question I should be asking is whether photography is an art or a craft?
An artist, on the other hand and per the dictionary, is more definitive: 1) person who produces works in any of the arts that are primarily subject to aesthetic criteria; 2) person who practices one of the fine arts, esp. a painter or sculptor; 3) person whose trade or profession requires a knowledge of design, drawing, painting, etc.: a commercial artist; 4) a person who works in one of the performing arts, as an actor, musician, or singer; a public performer: a mime artist; an artist of the dance; 5) person whose work exhibits exceptional skill.
Personally, I consider photography more of a craft and myself a craftsman even if the dictionary doesn't differentiate all that much between the two. That might sound sacreligious to some. I agree that exceptional photography includes many artistic qualities but, at the same time, it usually contains highly-skilled technical qualities for it to be considered exceptional.
Pretty girl shooting sometimes falls into the traditional perceptions of what constitutes art. Often, though, the aesthetic criteria applied to a pretty girl image has more to do with the beauty and appeal of the model rather than the artistic abilities of the photographer. Who cares about art when she looks like that!
I know this because, more often than not, when I've shown images I've shot to others, it seems like I received more responses like, "Wow! She's beautiful!" than, "Wow! That's a beautiful photograph!" I don't think I've ever had someone say, "Now that's a work of art!" Unless, of course, they were refering to the model herself. I'll admit, some of my work as been accused of being "artsy" but I'm not sure I was being complimented at the time.
While it sounds like I'm going all philosophical with this, it's something to write about and it's not always so easy coming up with subjects to write about nearly every day.
The pretty girl pics accompanying this post are of Aveena who is, IMO, a curvy work of art.
2 comments:
IMHO, photography can be an art or a craft depending on how it's practiced. I shoot weddings primarily and wedding photography is largely craft. Couples do not want experimental avante guarde comments on society in their wedding album. Most thinking outside the box comes if you've already got the standard stuff in the can. Craft photography sells the person, experience, objects etc. captured in the image. Art photography sells and idea, commentary, or realization (probably more could be listed here). There's a level of abstraction to art photography, some sort of impact on several levels, it's multidimensional.
Craft photography sells the person, experience, objects etc. captured in the image. Art photography sells and idea, commentary, or realization (probably more could be listed here). There's a level of abstraction to art photography, some sort of impact on several levels, it's multidimensional.
well said!!!!
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