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Kathleen Bishop

9 Years Ago

A Fine Line Or

a big fat one?
Sell Art Online

I’m using this image to illustrate my question. Where do you draw the line between artsy and just plain crappy? Can either spin or maker influence perception? If this was a newly-discovered work by a famous deceased photographer would it fetch a hefty price? What if it had a well-crafted description and a provocative title? Would that transform it from garbage to art? If this is art, are the rat and bunny droppings merely icing on the cake? If not, is the poop further proof that this is pretentious crap parading as art?

Where do we draw the line? I’d love to see examples of artsy-fartsy photography along with the reasons why it should be considered art.

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Mike Savad

9 Years Ago

that picture needs a doll head, just hidden in the shadows. if i can't figure out what the image is about, then it's in the B pile. artsy has to do more with light play and textures for a scene like this. but i think if you add a creepy element, like something lurking in the shadows, it would tell a story better.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

 

Marlene Burns

9 Years Ago

Kathleen,
Interesting question to discuss..thanks for posting.
Hype aside ( cuz good pr skills can carry you pretty far), I think the answer is found within an artist's own heart...is the intention authentic?
There will never be such a time that all people will agree on what is art and what is crap, but authenticity in one's work, often shines through.
At the end of the day, you gotta be able to look at yourself in the mirror AND sleep at night.

 

Jim Hughes

9 Years Ago

I like that photo. It contains a mood and implies a human story, but one we'll never know.

Asking if something is 'art' is like asking if a particular plant is 'food'. It is 'food' if and when some creature eats it.

Photography Prints

 

Ronald Walker

9 Years Ago

Going back to a different thread I posted, art for me should take me somewhere I have not been before, not the local department store. I like this image. If I feel I have seen it over and over I don't want to waste my time with it no mater how well done.

 

Edward Fielding

9 Years Ago

Some of the worst photos I've seen are displayed as fine art. From my understanding (and my recent visit to the ICA in Boston where they display many photographs from their permanent collection), the museum world cares little for things that are frowned on here - for example straight horizons or snapshot aesthetic.

It comes down to marketing.

Art Prints

 

Ronald Walker

9 Years Ago

Edward it comes down to art, not crafts.

 

Edward Fielding

9 Years Ago

You'd like to think so. But it takes more than tilting the horizon on a shot of a storage unit to make it into the permanent collection.

Art Prints

Art Prints

 

Barbara Moignard

9 Years Ago

I like the image. I think Mike, as usual, is right. But perhaps just a creepy or mysterious title would 'add' something to the piece.

 

Kathleen Bishop

9 Years Ago

I have something in mind that might help but will need to add it later. The garden is calling. In the meantime I hope others will post their art photos. This place is such a great resource for new ideas.

 

Ronald Walker

9 Years Ago

Edward, yes I agree with you on that one. First off the body of your work needs to be consistent leading in some direction. Does your work influence other artist and therefore have some effect on art history? Do the conceptual ideas complement the formal considerations? This list can go on and on, out of focus, tilted horizon line, rat poop, sure why not?

 

Kathleen Bishop

9 Years Ago

Edward, just saw the Richard Prince piece you posted and it reminded me of this one.
Photography Prints

 

Edward Fielding

9 Years Ago

Like I said before its all in how you market yourself. The image itself is immaterial.

..

The thing is, you need to be aware of your target market and then take the appropriate steps to achieve the needs of the buyers in that market. The museum market is going to need all of the things that Ronald talks about because they need to justify those huge purchases to the board and to their visitors.

The POD market doesn't need it, they know what they like when they see it.

So there really isn't any point comparing the two --- they are different products for different markets.

 

Abbie Shores

9 Years Ago

I love that photo!

 

Ronald Walker

9 Years Ago

I agree that the markets are very different, the pod market is more the "I don't know anything about art, but I know what I like". , I think you severely shortchange the importance of art with that attitude. Art has been around at least 30,000 years. Made for many different reasons over the centuries. People have made art in the best of times and the worst of times. Why? To decorate? Sometimes yes but mostly to communicate with others. Why not just words? Visual art predates letters and letters were derived from the visual arts. Still the visual image has advantages over writing. It transcends language, you don't need to speak an artist language to get something from their work and it is simultaneous. All information is presented to the viewer at once. Music, drama, dance, writing all take time to be introduced to the information contained. Each artist, of course is free to use these advantages as they wish and often the evaluation of quality in a work of art is based on this use, not marketing.

 

Edward Fielding

9 Years Ago

Of course I'm poking fun. But you have to admit the Emperor's clothes are a bit transparent.

 

Edward Fielding

9 Years Ago

Photography Prints

In this piece Fielding explores the farm life narrative as a consequence of the reductive parameters of these conservatisms, such as rigid canons, fixation on objects and absolute field demarcations, activist practices are not even included in the narratives and archives of political history and art theory, as long as they are not purged of their radical aspects, appropriated and coopted into the machines of the spectacle.

 

Kathleen Bishop

9 Years Ago

OMG, Edward, I haven't laughed that hard in a long time! Perfect example of spin! Can I hire you to write descriptions for all my "work"?

 

Ronald Walker

9 Years Ago

Dude, beautiful man and I thought it was a truck!

 

Edward Fielding

9 Years Ago

Back to school for you young man.

 

Edward Fielding

9 Years Ago

Notice the use of steelyard composition. (I learned that this week on another thread!)

 

Ronald Walker

9 Years Ago

Nice, I missed the steelyard composition.

 

Bill Tomsa

9 Years Ago

What's the phrase I'm looking for? Oh yes.."Beauty (Art) is in the eye of the beholder"

Bill Tomsa

http://billtomsa.blogspot.com/

 

Marlene Burns

9 Years Ago

ED,
you've got a very promising vocation in your future.....the king of verbal gobble-de-gook!

 

VIVA Anderson

9 Years Ago

And I thought...nice idea...truck going uphill!....what do I know?

 

Roy Erickson

9 Years Ago

I really cannot imagine anyone hanging this on their wall - perhaps under the bed to keep the dust bunnies and roaches out

Sell Art Online

 

Kevin Callahan

9 Years Ago

Dorothea Lange, among others made a pretty good name for herself with just such evocative images. I think you jump too hard.

Art Prints

 

Bill Tomsa

9 Years Ago

@ Marlene
" the king of verbal gobble-de-gook!"

Gobble-de-gook!?? But I thought it was mumbo-jumbo! LOL

Bill Tomsa

http://billtomsa.blogspot.com/

 

Edward Fielding

9 Years Ago

VIVA - notice the roll of hay that fell off. '-)

 

Valerie Reeves

9 Years Ago

As one of my art professors once said, "Art is whatever you can convince someone else is art."

 

Gregory Scott

9 Years Ago

That hay didn't just fall off. It rolled off, and by now it's halfway down to Mexico!

With regard to the Original Post, if an image has emotion, it just might be art. To me, the pipe stem and the age and decay of the environment induce thoughts of changes in the average lifestyle of people, from rural to urban, for example. It is expressive of thoughts of days long gone, and that is an important artistic value of the image, quite apart from its other technical, compositional, or other kinds of attributes. In my mind, the reflection of the picket fence, another artifact of a bygone era seals the deal. Whoever smoked that pipe may be dead and gone, or lingering in a rest home somewhere. Was he one of those rural old folk who sat on his porch and waved at every car that passed by? Our lifestyles are now changing faster than ever in human history, and any glimpse into the human past can be meritorious, and a warning of radical changes to come.


This might get another B.S. award, but I mean what I said. The image has value.

 

This discussion is closed.