We’re exploring art from the perspective of other artistic disciplines to shed light on what it means to be a photographer and an artist. (You can read The Photographer as Artist – Introduction.) We’re doing this because photographers often seem to be expected to meet a “reality standard” that has not been imposed on other artists since the classic period of Greece two thousand years ago – “Did you use a filter?” “Are these colors real?” “Did you manipulate this photograph?”
There are three areas to explore – what I call the Tripod of Artistry – the three legs upon which all arts and artists stand. This article looks at the first of the three – Expressive Spectrum.
Medium
Every art discipline involves a medium. Painters choose from oils and canvas, water colors and paper, tempura and wood plus other combinations, resulting in a visual experience that often amazes us. Composers create musical scores which utilize instruments, voices and ensembles. The result is a musical experience for us to enjoy. Playwrights create the scripts that weave together the stage, sets, costumes and actors into a play. Authors create the written word. Performers use their instruments be they musical instruments as in the case of musicians or their bodies as in the case of actors, dancers or singers. Sculptors use marble, bronze, wood, metal, glass, clay and more. Every art has a medium that the artist uses as a tangible, persistent expression of his or her creation.
There seems to be two types of artists. The first is the creator, the artist from whose inspirational wellspring something new is created. These are the painters, authors, composers, sculptors, architects, and so on – the ones who create something out of nothing. Something flows from their imaginations on to their medium.
The second is the performer, the artist who interprets another artist’s work, another’s vision. These are the musicians, actors and dancers. Some art forms require the performer to bring the art work to life, to breathe life into it.
Think of all the artists involved in the production of a great movie. You start with the novelist whose book is the foundation of the movie. The screen writer transforms the novel into a drama for the screen. Set designers bring the visual image to life. Costume designers create the mood of the period. Camera operators create the visual impact. From the actors come rich, complex characters. And directors intertwine all these talents together into a coherent, moving whole.
The Medium’s Expressive Spectrum
But returning to the medium itself, there’s an interesting observation that can be made. The medium the artist chooses has a very profound impact on what the artist can say. Let’s look at a couple examples. Take the painters who choose oils versus water colors. Is each of these media capable of producing the same mood? While there is a great deal of overlap, in general water colors are capable of producing a more delicate painting while oils tend to be more bold. Trumpets herald the beginning of a race at the race track. Can you imagine attempting to do the same thing with a ukulele? It makes you smile just thinking about it. But on the other hand you don’t have trumpets accompanying a Hawaiian dancer either.
So then, a musician who plays a trumpet will be capable of a certain latitude of expression while another musician who plays a ukulele will be capable of a totally different latitude of expression. Typically, the trumpet will be used for subjects (melodies) that are quite different from the ukulele from the triumphant entry of gods to the destruction of the universe. In fact, there may not be any overlap at all or at best minimal overlap between the subjects that are suitable for a trumpet and those suitable for a ukulele.
But what happens when the same subject is interpreted with different media? Do you remember when Jimi Hendrix performed the Star Spangled Banner at Woodstock? You can hear it on You Tube . It doesn’t come out the same as when performed by the US Army band (it’s not on You Tube but you can hear it here). Granted, there’s a bit of a difference in interpretation but the medium is one of the elements that makes this difference possible.
There’s one more point to draw about the expressive capacities of the medium, namely, each medium is capable of a range of expression, what I call the Expressive Spectrum. If you want to listen to an excellent example, check out Wynton Marsalis’ wonderful (and free) “web-only” album “Here…Now.” The seven tracks are labeled Chorale, Speed, Strength, Style, Glamour, Pain and Heaven. You will get the idea.
The point then is that the choice of medium profoundly affects what the artist can say through his or her art. Some media have very broad Expressive Spectra while others are more limited.
Photography’s Expressive Spectrum
As photographers, our medium is the print or, more and more now, the JPEG file displayed on a monitor. The tool associated with the medium is of course the camera. And just like the painter who can choose from different brushes – broad, narrow, stiff, supple – and achieve different results, so to can we choose from different cameras – film, digital, point and shoot, D-SLR, large format, prosumer, professional, all of which will add their mark to the final expression.
As to the Expressive Spectrum of our medium, well, it’s huge. Take two photographs from one photographer – W. Eugene Smith. Contrast the innocent beauty of The Walk to Paradise Garden to the unforgettable and haunting Tomoko Uemura in Her Bath. Or how about Edward Weston’s Bell Pepper. Or maybe you would like a quick tour of some of Richard Avedon’s portraits. Or check out David Hurn’s passion for his native Wales in “Land of My Fathers.”
It would seem that one could go on forever with one great photographer after another, each stretching the Expressive Spectrum of our medium in a new direction. Regardless of the subjects we choose or the tools we select with which to capture them, the Expressive Spectrum of our medium is rich with nearly endless possibilities. This is good news for us as artist photographers because it means we can pursue our passion and creative vision down virtually any path we can imagine.
In the next article we will talk about the second leg of the Tripod of Artistry – Creative Vocabulary.
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