{"id":9091,"date":"2014-11-23T21:56:42","date_gmt":"2014-11-24T02:56:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/?p=9091"},"modified":"2023-12-16T09:15:20","modified_gmt":"2023-12-16T14:15:20","slug":"what-is-fair-in-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/2014\/11\/what-is-fair-in-art\/","title":{"rendered":"All is Fair in Art… or is it?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Stepping<\/a>

Stepping Out
\n(Craig H Collins)<\/p><\/div>\n

Hello again, art lovers.\u00a0 Before we begin, I’d like to share a recent work<\/a> of mine (at right).\u00a0 Please click the image to see a larger version.\u00a0 You can let me know what you think of it later.<\/p>\n

OK, onto the topic of this presentation.\u00a0 As reported in<\/a> The Guardian<\/em> (one of my favorite reads), the debate about whether photography is art — not just a literal, mechanical reproduction — started in the 1840s and continues today.\u00a0 At first glance, it is hard to fathom why there should be controversy: after all, photographers have been crafting<\/em> images for artistic effect from the very beginning (notably Julia Margaret Cameron<\/a> in the 1860s-1870s).\u00a0 Wherever we find design, we invite ourselves to be designers.<\/p>\n

\"Angel<\/a>

“Angel of Nativity”
\n(Julia Margaret Cameron)<\/p><\/div>\n

The Guardian’s<\/em> Michael Prodger observes: “What some pioneering photographers recognised straight away was that photographs, like paintings, are artificially constructed portrayals: they too had to be carefully composed, lit and produced.”\u00a0 In spite of this, it is hard for modern viewers to discard the notion that photography — unlike other art forms — is supposed to portray something real<\/em>.\u00a0 Most of us have been trained to think of photographs as documents, time-stamped slices of life, rather than artistic compositions.<\/p>\n

The vast majority of photos ordinary people take — think of those trillions of selfies and shots of couples kissing in front of the Eiffel Tower<\/a> — are indeed documentary in nature.\u00a0 But must they all be?\u00a0 While your creative heart may say no, your interpreting brain wants to see facts,<\/em> and it isn’t happy when it doesn’t get them.\u00a0 We like our art to say ART<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em> on the label, so we can view it with the “proper” frame of mind.\u00a0 That’s why most works of art are either framed, or placed on a pedestal, or performed on a stage.\u00a0 When we experience art in context, we can better calibrate our reactions, thanks to conventions we have evolved to help us distinguish artistic expression<\/em> from ordinary reality.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Shark<\/a>

Not the National Geographic Photo of the Year<\/p><\/div>\n

Photographic art blurs this line, and that creates problems.\u00a0 The more crafted<\/em> a photo looks, the more trouble we have accepting the legitimacy of an image.\u00a0 Consider the image at right<\/a>: a shark is leaping out of the water to attack a soldier during a helicopter rescue.\u00a0 In the early 2000s, this image was probably emailed a million times — the text claimed it was the “National Geographic Photo of the Year.”\u00a0 It wasn’t, of course.<\/p>\n

It was not only not<\/em> the National Geographic Photo of the Year, it was not even a photo, strictly speaking.\u00a0 It was a mashup of two shots, one of an Air Force training session, the other of a breaching shark by South African photographer Charles Maxwell<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This would be just another tired example of a photoshop hoax were it not for the following tidbit that Mr. Maxwell later revealed to National Geographic:<\/p>\n

Maxwell said that he “cheated a bit” to get the [shark] photo.\u00a0 Though he has seen as many as ten breaches in a single morning, it is difficult to predict where a shark will be seen.\u00a0 So he towed a seal decoy made of carpet behind his boat, in order to attract a breaching shark.<\/em><\/p>\n

Now, who is fooling whom?\u00a0 Mr. Maxwell didn’t “just happen to be there” at that dramatic moment.\u00a0 He fooled the shark, to get it to leap where he would be in position to capture it.\u00a0 Did he say this at the time his shark photo was published?\u00a0 Or did he fool us too?<\/p>\n

\"whoopi\"<\/a>

Whoopi Goldberg
\n(Annie Leibovitz)<\/p><\/div>\n

Please do not misconstrue.\u00a0 Mr. Maxwell is no more a fraud than Annie Liebovitz, who is famous for shooting the famous.\u00a0 No, Ms. Liebovitz did not just happen to walk into Whoopi Goldberg’s bathroom as she was taking a milk bath.\u00a0 Yes, the scene was staged, then photographed, and then one of the shots (of who knows how many) was selected as “best” and that is the one that is now famous.\u00a0 But the shot was hardly as spontaneous as it looks.<\/p>\n

Unlike the shark photo, it is obvious that the Whoopi<\/em> photo was crafted.\u00a0 We see right away that it is an artistic\/editorial statement, not a document.<\/p>\n

When you see a documentary photo, how real<\/em> do you expect it to be?\u00a0 To help answer this, consider how you would react to the shark image if you were presented with these stories about how it was made:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
“I was on a cruise ship taking photos of the shoreline, when this shark leaped out the water right in front of my camera!\u00a0 It was amazing!\u00a0 How lucky is that!”<\/td>\n\"Shark<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
“I saw a shark breach many years ago and wanted to get a photo of one ever since.\u00a0 So I hired a boat and cruised around for hours, until one finally cooperated and leaped in front of me.”<\/td>\n\"Shark<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
“I have seen many shark breaches and I wanted to get a great photo of one without waiting forever out there.\u00a0 So I hired a boat to drag a seal-shaped lure around and soon a shark breached nearby and I was able to capture it.”<\/td>\n\"Shark<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
“I had a pretty good shot of a shark breach, but my photo didn’t have the drama I remembered.\u00a0 So, to amp up the action, I added some water splashes around its mouth and body in photoshop.”<\/td>\n\"Shark<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
“I once saw a shark breach but was too late to grab a shot of it.\u00a0 So I took another shark photo of mine and pasted it on an ocean background in photoshop, and then I added some splashes.\u00a0 This is pretty much how I remember it.\u00a0 It was amazing.”<\/td>\n\"Shark<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
“I never saw a shark leap out of the water, but I wanted a cool picture for my room that would freak out my buds, so I found a shark photo on the internet and pasted it on an ocean background in photoshop and made a poster.\u00a0 Awesome, man!”<\/td>\n\"Shark<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

After reading these “behind-the-scenes” stories, at what point did you decide that the shark image was no longer very interesting?\u00a0 The sense that an image is contrived<\/em> makes it lose that “special moment” quality we value.\u00a0 The greater the level of contrivance, the less likely we are to embrace the effort, at least for documentary images.\u00a0 The backstory matters, and it has to reinforce what we see.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0\u2022\u00a0\u2022\u00a0\u2022\u00a0\u2022<\/p>\n

Before I leave the topic of reality in documentary photos, I’d like to share three more shots, all of which were taken by photographer Dorthea Lange<\/a> at a camp for agricultural workers in 1936 (click to enlarge):<\/p>\n

\n
\"Migrants<\/a>

Migrant Family
\n(Dorthea Lange)<\/p><\/div>

\"Migrant<\/a>

Migrant Mother and Child
\n(Dorthea Lange)<\/p><\/div>

\"Migrant<\/a>

Migrant Mother
\n(Dorthea Lange)<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

There is no official record of the order in which these shots of Florence Owens Thompson and her children were taken, but Ms. Lange’s comments<\/a> suggest the sequence shown here.\u00a0 The third image is the Migrant Mother<\/em> photo that became the iconic portrayal of the harsh conditions and despair of the Great Depression.<\/p>\n

Comparing the photos, one cannot help but see stark differences in composition and feel.\u00a0 In the third image, were the children instructed by the photographer to crowd into the frame and look away?\u00a0 (They did not seem so shy in the first image, and they were nowhere to be seen in the second.)\u00a0 Does it matter what really transpired here, or do editorial goals trump reality?<\/p>\n

According to the Library of Congress website<\/a>, Ms. Thompson “came to regret that Lange ever made the photographs, which she felt permanently colored her with a Grapes of Wrath<\/em> stereotype.\u00a0 Contrary to the despairing immobility the famous image seems to embody, Thompson was an active participant in farm labor struggles in the 1930s, occasionally serving as an organizer.”<\/p>\n

The lesson is, even in documentary photography, the backstory is not always what it seems to be.\u00a0 A talented photographer knows how to “configure” a scene to tell a more compelling backstory, as I believe was done here.\u00a0 In my view, the backstory of Whoopi<\/em> is more transparent than that of Migrant Mother<\/em>.*<\/p>\n

Curiously, fine art photography is not free of such concerns.\u00a0 You might think that, since it says\u00a0ART<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em> on the label, the only thing that should matter is how it looks on your wall, yes?\u00a0 That’s what I once thought.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0\u2022\u00a0\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<\/p>\n

As you know, I am also a photographer.\u00a0 I don’t do portraits and rarely shoot landscapes.\u00a0 Mostly I like to find designs in everyday things and create compositions of lines and shapes that play together in the frame (I call them maps<\/em>).\u00a0 The past few years, I have been trying (with uneven success) to go beyond interesting graphics and somehow instill my “fine art” images with more emotional pull.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Yellow Leaf in Pool
\n(Craig H Collins)<\/p><\/div>\n

Here is one example (click to enlarge).\u00a0 I took this during a group photo shoot in Asheville in late summer.\u00a0 The theme of the shoot was “Yellow.”\u00a0 I found this leaf outside a downtown restaurant and dropped it into a small water feature nearby.\u00a0 It floated down the channel for several feet and then fell into a little pool, attracting a raft of bubbles.<\/p>\n

I rotated the leaf to draw attention to its heart shape and then shot the photo looking straight down the cascade of water.<\/p>\n

The photo received a number of positive comments from my fellow shooters, more than any other image from the event, for whatever that’s worth.\u00a0 But I did not post my “production notes” along with the image.\u00a0 Was that necesssary?\u00a0 Did the others assume (and did you) that I came upon this scene by chance?<\/p>\n

\"Beaver<\/a>

Beaver Lake, Asheville
\n(Craig H Collins)<\/p><\/div>\n

Now, consider this image (click to enlarge), one of the rare landscapes that I printed and sold.\u00a0 The scene is Beaver Lake in Asheville in the springtime.\u00a0 You will notice two sailboats on the lake.\u00a0 Yes, those boats did sail on Beaver Lake.\u00a0 No, there were no sailboats in that spot, on that day.<\/p>\n

Moreover, these boats had no crews.\u00a0 They were remote-controlled models, maybe twenty inches tall, operated by members of a local hobby club.<\/p>\n

The implied backstory, that a few sailors were enjoying the mountain scenery from their vantage point on the lake that spring day, was a photoshop fabrication.\u00a0 I thought the boats added a graceful, human presence to the scene while providing a minor focal point in the otherwise empty lake.\u00a0 I did consider that those familiar with the lake might reject this premise, while other viewers might find it appealing.<\/p>\n

Ironically, the two prints I sold were to a woman who raised her children near Beaver Lake.\u00a0 She wanted to give them to her children as gifts.<\/p>\n

Many questions arise.\u00a0 Is a landscape photo a document or is it art?\u00a0 Should I include some kind of disclosure statement with the image to explain the sailboats?\u00a0 If I were to do that, would it not “poison the well?”\u00a0 What about people who never visited Beaver Lake but would simply like a nice landscape to hang on their wall?<\/p>\n

Was it wrong to have added the sailboats?\u00a0 Should I have never printed this image if it could not stand on its own?\u00a0 Why would no one question the existence (or reality) of the boats if this had been a painting?\u00a0 In the end, what limits apply — and what freedoms are granted — to the photographic artist?<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u2022\u00a0\u2022\u00a0\u2022\u00a0\u2022\u00a0\u2022<\/p>\n

This brings us back to the image I posted at the top of the page.\u00a0 It started as another one of those “lines, curves and shadows” photos that geometry-lovers go for.\u00a0 But there wasn’t enough there for me.\u00a0 Frankly, I thought it was boring.\u00a0 So I got an old boot from our garage, took a number of photos of it, and pasted the “best one” onto the steps.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Before\"<\/a>

Before<\/p><\/div>

\"Stepping<\/a>

After<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Even if you don’t particularly care for the image, you must admit that the boot invites you to think about the backstory.\u00a0 Once you notice the boot, you can hardly stop your mind from asking, what happened here?\u00a0 It may not add up to anything coherent, but it has more pull than the graphics alone.<\/p>\n

This, however, comes at a cost.\u00a0 My photoshop work violates the convention of helping the viewer distinguish artistic expression<\/em> from ordinary reality.<\/em>\u00a0 The boot transforms a straightforward geometric study into a enigmatic, possibly-documentary image.\u00a0 The viewer does not know — and is not told — whether this is reality, fiction or “based on a true story.”\u00a0 Once again, the Whoopi<\/em> photo, though contrived, is more transparent in its production than this image.<\/p>\n

Let’s take this a step further (pun noted).\u00a0 If I were Annie Liebovitz, I would have had my assistant bring a boot to the scene, maybe even a boxful of them, and ask her to place a boot on one of the steps, or what-the-hell just throw the whole box down the stairway and let them land as they may.\u00a0 Then I would take the photo.\u00a0 Would this production be more “legitimate” in the eyes of the viewer than using photoshop?\u00a0 If so, why?\u00a0 Is it because “something happened” in the former case and “nothing really happened” in the latter?<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0\u2022\u00a0\u2022\u00a0\u2022\u00a0\u2022<\/p>\n

\"Tears<\/a>

Tears
\n(Man Ray)<\/p><\/div>\n

Man Ray<\/a> is considered to be avant-garde.\u00a0 Yet his photographs are conventional<\/em>, in the sense that it is easy for viewers to distinguish embellishment vs. reality.<\/p>\n

Jon Stewart <\/a>of the Daily Show has been called a prophet.\u00a0 Yet his humor is also conventional in the sense that it is easy for viewers for distinguish his satire and absurd premises from reality.<\/p>\n

Then there is (or was) Andy Kaufman<\/a>, who wrote the book on blurring lines.<\/p>\n

\"Andy<\/a>Photography needs an Andy Kaufman, someone whose work lays to rest, once and for all, the notion that photos must either depict reality or abstraction and nothing in between.\u00a0 We need this kind of breakthrough so that viewers will be able to see a boot on the stairstep as an artistic flourish rather than a deception and boats on the lake as brushstrokes instead of bogus.<\/p>\n

I’m optimistic that one day we will see an Andy Kaufman of photography, a master of the blurred line, who will make creative photographs no more threatening to our sense of time and reality than the paintings of Picasso, Duchamp and Dali.<\/p>\n

Until then, photographers shoot and adjust and edit, and some of us express our doubts\u00a0 whether what we do is art or artifice, real or tangled, craft or craftiness, treasure or trash.<\/p>\n

____________________<\/p>\n

* Photos like Whoopi<\/em> have other issues<\/del>.\u00a0 Today, a professional, creative photo is often a technical\/theatrical production that can take hours (if not days) to set up — in contrast to the 100ths-of-a-second instant it purports to be.\u00a0 Such vastly different but coexisting time scales can create cognitive dissonance<\/a> in the viewer.\u00a0 One can ask of Whoopi, <\/em>is this photo a moment in time<\/em> or not?\u00a0 There is no simple answer.<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hello again, art lovers.\u00a0 Before we begin, I’d like to share a recent work of mine (at right).\u00a0 Please click the image to see a larger version.\u00a0 You can let me know what you think of it later. OK, onto … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9091"}],"version-history":[{"count":183,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31739,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9091\/revisions\/31739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}