Photography as Art*

These delicate images of the Thalia Jonquil were recorded at 4:50 pm on April 30, 2011. They reveal the soft, luminous quality of late afternoon light at this time of year. A long, nuanced tonal range is possible in the image, all the way from pure white (at the tip of the corona or “horn” of the flower) to pure black (inside the corona). Light of this quality — what I call glancing light — gives the artist great expressive opportunity. (See my recent post on Glancing Light.)

This provides me a segue to the larger issue of photography as art. It’s surprising how often people resist this notion. Photography is not interpretive: it merely records. You hear that misguided assumption all too often.

“Records what?” I ask. After all, reality is infinitely complex, and to record we must select. Therein lies the art. What we select reveals a great deal about ourselves and how we see the world. This is true for the photojournalist as well as for the photographer aspiring to create art. In fact, the two facets are not mutually exclusive, and often overlap.

Friends often express shock or disapproval when I tell them that, using software, I routinely remove spots and blemishes from flowers and other subjects. “But that’s cheating,” they exclaim; “it’s not reality.”

“What is ‘reality’?” I reply. Is it the flower’s petal before the fly deposits the spot, or afterwards? And what, indeed, is my obligation to “reality?” Am I limited simply to recording, which I do often enough? Or, can I also aspire to interpret, to capture the essence of a subject as I see it?

Of course, these questions aren’t original with me. They’ve been discussed through the ages by writers and philosophers far more learned than I. They bear repeating, however, because most people are new to this thinking, at least when it comes to photography.

A friend, whose judgment I respect, was cool to the top photo when I showed it to her. “It’s not how we’re used to seeing jonquils,” she complained. Of course, her comment was one more variant on the “reality” argument I’ve been trying to debunk.

What is the role of the artist if not to show us new ways of looking at the world around us? The bottom two photos may be more conventional, and so more to her liking. But the top one would be my first choice to hang in a gallery.

Not all the photos on this blog rise to the level of “art” Many are merely illustrative of a story being told, or may tell a story themselves. More often than not, the line between the two disappears entirely.