el globo negro

I haven't been shooting many fotos lately.  Is looking at great art discouraging?  Isn't it supposed to inspire you?  Phil and I were leafing through art books a couple of weeks ago and there were several of flower photography.  Most of them were, I'm sad to report, quite simply boring--even the ones that were gorgeous.  Whenever I start thinking about this, I find myself on the slippery slope of trying to define what makes something art.  Is it harder to make art out of an inherently beautiful subject?  Or is it harder to make art with a medium that pretends to reproduce reality? 

Part of why photography has been so meaningful to me is because I don't try to make it mean anything.  I just like the way I see the world when I have a camera in my hand.  The more I learn, the more my conscious mind wants a hand in creating the image.  I don't know if that is good or bad.  I don't want to lose that immediacy of seeing.

On a cmpletely unrelated note, a black balloon just floated by my 23rd story window.  This seems to be some sort of omen, and probably not a good one.

Comments

[colin]

But the balloon was floating up and away, so maybe it's a good omen.

[Kendra]

The pet stores tell you that fish can live in tap water so that later you feel bad when it dies and you buy another fish to poison. I've graduated from being a pet killer to being a pet...supporter, so feel free to tap me when you recover and are ready to try again. I recomend compost worms as a pet. Then your pet is the community , rather than an individual (trash-eating) organism.

[greg]

At one point they thought that the new art/science of photography would make human made illustration obsolete. Look what's happened to the visual arts since!
Besides that, in referencing the ultimate question of "What is Art?":
Marcel Duchamps created artworks with 'found objects' -- isn't that what you are doing with your photos? It's your 'framing' of a bit of reality; we see what you see. That's not unlike your sharing of your views, your emotions, your coffee, etc. via the words you write here. We get to see a reality through the eyes of the artist.
What is art?
"Just do it"
!

I think it's more important to know what art speaks to you and then just enjoy, appreciate and create that. The answer to "what is art" will always depend on who you ask.

In my work I capture images that mean something to me. And it usually pertains to beauty. And when I can share an image with someone and they see something differently than how'd they normally see it, it's a fantastic feeling. I do like to share how I see things with others. And I beleive you do too. And you do it so well. BUt like you as well, I shoot for myself. The sharing part is just the bonus.

When photography is used to merely document reality in it's most mundane form, with an "expected" view, it looses it's magic because then we're just recording what we already know. It's predicatable. When we see a photograph that shows us a perspective that surprises or inspires us- that's art. At least to me. ; )

[tracey]

Whoops! That was me (up there!)

[ellie]

That balloon was merely an existential fart. Don't worry, it'll dissipate. But it would have made a great foto.

I like seeing the world through your wondering eyes.

[Raven]

Being a fellow shutterbug i can appreciate your desire to find intersting visages and angles of view that are extraordinary. But the occassional simple portrait is good too. If we alter the image to meet our needs then it is not a photograph per say just a staged shot. half the fun is roaming the world looking for the perfect shot.

[One Mo' Time]

Just saw the Andrew Wyeth exhibit in Philly.
(He's definitely NOT what many presume him to be)
Great quote from him:
"Magic!
It's what makes things sublime.
It's the difference between a picture that is profound art and just a painting of an object"