{"id":2304,"date":"2012-01-13T07:06:00","date_gmt":"2012-01-13T15:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/?p=2304"},"modified":"2012-01-13T07:07:59","modified_gmt":"2012-01-13T15:07:59","slug":"photography-level-fine-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/2012\/01\/13\/photography-level-fine-art\/","title":{"rendered":"Taking Your Photography to the Next Level – Fine Art"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the previous post in this series I presented the idea that calendar art is a worthy first goal for serious photographers.\u00a0 (Read <\/span>Taking Your Photography to the Next Level<\/span><\/a>.)\u00a0 And aside from the fact that the subject matter of calendar art may be fairly run of the mill, the technical and aesthetic qualities are generally excellent.<\/span><\/p>\n

In that post I ended with this thought:<\/span><\/p>\n

Calendar art is about the subject of the photograph.\u00a0 The photographer is transparent.\u00a0 In fine art photography the influence of the artist becomes more apparent. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

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There are several things that I believe fine art photography isn\u2019t necessarily limited to.\u00a0 Fine art photography is not just about the subject.\u00a0 What I mean is you don\u2019t have to photograph doors and windows to create fine art photographs.\u00a0 You don\u2019t have to make your photographs austere.\u00a0 They don\u2019t have to be intellectual and unemotional.\u00a0 They don\u2019t have to be something no one has ever done before.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not saying that fine art photography excludes these things.\u00a0 What I am suggesting is that fine art photography includes all of these and much, much more.<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s get back to the idea of taking your photography to the next level.\u00a0 Once you\u2019ve mastered the technical and aesthetic excellence of calendar art there is still a long ways to go to approach the best works of the masters or even their \u2018mundane\u2019 works.\u00a0 But instead of identifying levels between calendar art and the best of the masters, I want to talk about dimensions.\u00a0 I prefer to think about this in terms of dimensions because becoming an artist is not like climbing a ladder.\u00a0 It is really a journey of self discovery and revelation.\u00a0 Every artist\u2019s path is going to be unique and I don\u2019t think it occurs linearly.\u00a0 So, let\u2019s talk about the dimensions of fine art.<\/span><\/p>\n

The quote from the last post suggests that in fine art the artist is not transparent but becomes more and more apparent.\u00a0 The dimensions, then, relate to the artist becoming more aware of himself or herself, more in tune with what they are about and more capable of revealing themselves and their subjects through their art.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEvery creator painfully experiences the chasm between his inner vision and its ultimate expression.\u00a0 ~Isaac Bashevis Singer\u201d<\/em> <\/span><\/p>\n

The first dimension I\u2019d like to talk about is tied to what we\u2019ve already described \u2013 Creative Vocabulary<\/strong>.\u00a0 What\u2019s that?\u00a0 It\u2019s the skills you have as a photographer.\u00a0 Included in this are the tools and techniques you use both in the field and in the darkroom (digital or chemical).\u00a0 In the process of bringing your photography up to the calendar art standard you developed an extensive creative vocabulary.\u00a0 But that\u2019s not the end of it.\u00a0 Your creative vocabulary will continue to grow as you grow as an artist.\u00a0 And just as we are able to express ourselves more fully as our verbal vocabulary grows, the same happens with the creative vocabulary.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cArt is the colors and textures of your imagination.\u00a0 ~Meghan, Los Cerros Middle School, 1999\u201d<\/em> <\/span><\/p>\n

Another dimension is your Personal Style<\/strong>. There are many factors that contribute to personal style.\u00a0 They begin with who you are, your life experiences, your hopes and dreams, your view on life.\u00a0 Who you are affects how you see the world and in turn what and how you photograph.\u00a0 You are unique, your view of the world is unique and therefore your photographs are unique.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to understand that you may not know what your personal style is or that you even have one.\u00a0 In fact, you may have never thought about it before.\u00a0 When wondering if you have a personal style and what it might be, it\u2019s not uncommon to feel like you\u2019re looking at a blank wall.\u00a0 And once you start down the road of discovering your personal style it may very well reveal itself to you very slowly.\u00a0 The process of discovery could take months and even years.\u00a0 (I speak from personal experience.)<\/span><\/p>\n

How can you go about discovering your personal style?\u00a0 I think perhaps the best way is to sit down with a dozen or so of your best photographs and start jotting down the adjectives or short phrases that describe them.\u00a0 Maybe they\u2019re dramatic or possibly static, bold or subtle, crude or refined, literal or symbolic, intense or tranquil \u2013 the list goes on.\u00a0 Don \u2018t rush this process; don\u2019t expect to get it done in just one sitting.\u00a0 Let it unfold.\u00a0 If you\u2019ve never looked at your photographs this way before it may not come easily.\u00a0 But over time you will be able to describe your work.\u00a0 And as you see patterns and commonalities emerge, you will get a sense of your style.\u00a0 As your awareness grows you will be able to nurture it so that your style manifests itself more strongly in your photographs.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe artist is the opposite of the politically minded individual, the opposite of the reformer, the opposite of the idealist.\u00a0 The artist does not tinker with the universe, he recreates it out of his own experience and understanding of life.\u00a0 ~Henry Miller\u201d<\/em> <\/span><\/p>\n

Another dimension of fine art is Interpretation<\/strong>.\u00a0 You can make the point that art is not the factual rendering of the world but the artist\u2019s interpretation of the world, of reality.\u00a0 I heard it put this way once, \u201cCraft is documentation; art is interpretation.\u201d\u00a0 When we as photographers give ourselves the freedom to start sharing our interpretation of the world, we become artists.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

I often ask people, \u201cWhen you experience a work of art, does it tell you more about the subject or the artist?\u201d\u00a0 My answer is, \u201cBoth.\u201d\u00a0 Great art shows us realities and insights that the artist sees but we easily miss.\u00a0 It is the unique vision and interpretation of the artist that discovers the unseen or casts a revealing light on the commonplace.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe artist gazes upon a reality and creates his own impression.\u00a0 The viewer gazes upon the impression and creates his own reality.\u00a0 ~Robert Brault\u201d<\/em><\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n

The final dimension, Communication<\/strong>, brings us full circle.\u00a0 The whole purpose of art is to communicate with our audiences.\u00a0 We communicate our vision and interpretation of reality, our personal style.\u00a0 All we have and want to say about life and the world around us can be communicated through our art.\u00a0 And it is our Creative Vocabulary<\/strong> and the Interpretive Decisions<\/strong> we make that allows this to happen. <\/span><\/p>\n

One of the things about art that is so wonderful is that the communication is happening on both sides of the work.\u00a0 The viewers bring themselves to the experience in all their individuality and variety.\u00a0 And, as Brault says above, they create their own interpretations, their own realities from the encounter. <\/span><\/p>\n

I hope these posts help you get a sense of where you are and where you might choose to take yourself as a photographer and an artist.\u00a0 I realize they are long on the concepts and short on practical specifics.\u00a0 But a worthwhile starting point is knowing where you are and where you fit within this framework.\u00a0 And hopefully you can glean enough to get some ideas of what you might want to work on next.\u00a0 Just remember, it\u2019s not the destination, it\u2019s the journey.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cArt is your personal diary where you may color your thoughts and emotions on a page.\u00a0 ~Sara, Los Cerros Middle School, 1999\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\"bristlecone_dusk_2010\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Join me on an upcoming workshop.\u00a0 Click here for more details.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

To see more of my photographs click here.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

(1756)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is involved in becoming a fine art photographer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[107,37,105,120,25,213,70,13,1358],"class_list":["post-2304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-how-to-articles","tag-art","tag-artist","tag-communication","tag-creative-vocabulary","tag-fine-art","tag-interpretation","tag-personal-style","tag-photography","tag-workshops"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9Nl7-Ba","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2304"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2304\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2308,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2304\/revisions\/2308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}