Photo Communication

If you ask the question "what is art?" you most likely will get many different opinions, but art is not something that can be easily defined. There are several different dictionary definitions of art. Art is firstly defined as a "human effort to imitate, supplement, alter or counteract the work of nature." This definition describes the actual act of creating art. The question of what can be considered art is still unsure. I truly believe that anything can be considered art. It is something that has endless limitations, if any limitations at all. Therefore I believe that a photograph, without doubt, can be considered art.
I am very interested in the idea that while a painting or drawing is usually automatically considered art, a photograph isn't always. This concept is completely irrational if you ask me. I understand why people think this way, but I also understand why they shouldn't. Paintings, drawings and sculptures are considered art because they are basically the earliest forms of what we believe art to be. For one to understand why photography can be considered art, the fact that art is constantly changing and evolving needs to be accepted. A photograph didn't exist a thousand years ago so it makes sense that it's not on the same level as a painting or drawing. Art is all about ideas though, and throughout time human minds develop, therefore our ideas develop- therefore art develops! I believe that a thousand years from now things will be considered art that don't even exist today.
If you believe that art techniques and art itself advances then you will be able to understand why a photograph specifically can be considered art. Let's destruct something like a painting, which most people usually consider to be art. What is a painting made of? A canvas or paper and paints. These things are not of the extraordinary. They are things that exist in the real world, obviously. A photograph can be destructed to that same level. It is made of paper and chemicals. This is only the basic idea of what makes a piece of art though. Most people would argue that it's not what physically makes a painting that makes it art. Well then what is it about a painting that makes it art? It is the intention! This was created by an "artist" they might say. Well if this same artist instead of painting a picture- pushes a button on a camera, who is to say that the painting is art but not the photograph? If the artist, or whoever is "behind the steering wheel", has the intention of creating art, then whatever they create cannot be denied the title. Labeling common objects as art is the act of taking this entire concept to a broader level.
J. Killeen
Oct. '05