State of the ART: The Purpose of Fine Art Photography

Photo.net member, Pete Myers, is a fine art photographer based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. This is the first of four installments called State of the ART. You can visit this artist and explore his captivating portfolios here.

The debate or beliefs about what makes art can be absorbing and/or tedious depending on the person holding forth. I have had many conversations in class and with other photographers about fine art photography and the changes that came about due to digital photography. Some hold that fine art photography is a product of film and darkrooms, where the more organic approach to print making is apparent, others claim this is just evidence of an interest in the craft based aspects of an earlier photography model and is not relevant to a discussion about whether an image is fine art or not.

This article by Pete Myers on Photo.net address this question, we accept that any view on this is personal and therefore open to challenge, Pete makes many extremely valid points and this article is worth reading and thinking about

Image caption: American Grasslands Homestead—Image 4 © 2013, Peter H. Myers

For me, the purpose of fine art photography is to ennoble the beauty of what is in front of the lens. It is the photographer’s job to fortify the photograph with a clarity of view unique to his or her passion for the subject. But the image is not about the photographer; it is not about the photographer’s camera system; it is not about the photographer’s technique. The photographer is the conduit for the formation of the image, and what tools and techniques are used should invisibly support the beauty within the photograph in celebrating what is before the lens………

That full-stride moment comes when the fine art photographer simply FEELS. The rest is irrelevant. And it comes at a personal cost of gaining maturity of self that is beyond ordinary “things.” It is beyond the point of worrying about what the photographer is getting out of the process in art or reward. It is beyond the point in what others might think of the work. The photographic tool simply has become the means for the photographer to connect with the meaning of life’s truth, through beauty. What is seen through the lens is a metaphor for truth as shown through beauty. And to get there, the artist must give up all the rest. The perfect light is that which is imperfect.

So how does this all have relevance to your own personal work? For most, photography is an advanced hobby or part-time vocation as part of a very hectic life. Driving one’s passion to the limit might not be fully achievable with the time available. But nevertheless, there is a lot that can be ventured that will have immediate benefit upon the direction of your own work……….

READ MORE HERE

Magnum Photos announces Sydney photography workshop

For our friends on the other side (of the world…..nothing spooky here) a workshop. Hosted in conjunction with the Head On photography festival, the five-day workshop will be led by Magnum photographers Ian Berry, Eli Reed and Chris Steele-Perkin

Intended to be hands-on and practical, the workshop, which will take place from 21-25 May, will involve group critiques, and reviewing and mentoring sessions.

Image by Ian Berry

Participants will be encouraged to work on self-directed projects under the guidance of Magnum photographers Ian Berry, Eli Reed and Chris Steele-Perkins who will assist in all aspects of shooting, editing, discussing and presenting work across the five days.

The workshop is aimed at photographers who want to challenge their visual understanding, develop their photographic identity and push the boundaries of their personal practice.

It will culminate in a projection of participants’ work as part of the official Head On Photo Festival, Australia’s largest photography festival.

In addition, workshop participants will have the opportunity to produce a group photobook in conjunction with Blurb.

The deadline for applications is 28 April. To apply for a place on the workshop, visit the Magnum website.

For information about Head On Photo Festival, visit www.headon.com.au.

er…what is Burn Magazine?

burn is an evolving journal
for emerging photographers. 

burn is curated by
magnum photographer
david alan harvey.

 We publish new stories or singles at least two times per week

Is it worth a visit and perhaps a subscription, I think it might just be but go and have a look for yourself here

© Alisa Resnik

This is what the editor says about Burn

burn was launched as an online magazine/journal on December 21, 2008 and is a spinoff of my blog “Road Trips” which I started in December of 2006. The intent then and now is to provide a platform for emerging photographers both online and in print. This comes from a lifetime of mentoring photographers. I started teaching photographic workshops a year after I took one myself at the Universtiy of Missouri Workshop. I was a student at 21 and was teaching at 22.

My whole philosophy of teaching and mentoring is based on the theory that I will be of most value to emerging photographers because I am very much a working photographer. I am constantly creating books for myself, planning exhibitions, printing for collectors, proposing and shooting magazine assignments, and do the occasional advertising shoot. Because of this NOW experience , it is quite easy for me to relate to the world of younger photographers who may benefit from my editing and expertise, yet know full well that I struggle with the environs of a fickle publishing world as do they.

burn is not a finished product. burn will not be the same tomorrow as it is today. Evolution and revolution are my keywords for living the photographic life. In an ever fast changing world for photographers and writers, my goal here is to be at the forefront of change and to provide an outlet for emerging photographers, and perhaps established photographers as well. So many speak of tough times ahead. I see opportunity. In my career lifetime, I have never seen so much opportunity.

burn is born from an educational imperative and to bring strong photographic essays and powerful text to not only photographers, but to anyone fascinated by a visual and literary interpretation of our complex planet. Your interpretations may be either journalistic in nature or esoteric subjective pieces. I hold all artists in high regard. With me as editor/curator you need never think “what does he want or like?” I will push you to do your thing, not mine…

We will do something very special right here on burn. A collaboration between thee and me. Adventure. Always exploring new territory. With YOU as the authors.

Authors of your own destiny.

Stay tuned…

David Alan Harvey

William Eggleston to receive Outstanding Contribution to Photography award

The BJP tells us that William Eggleston is to be awarded a prize for his outstanding contribution to photography, can’t even think what his honest response to that might be…..try any of these

 I don’t have a burning desire to go out and document anything. It just happens when it happens. It’s not a conscious effort, nor is it a struggle. Wouldn’t do it if it was. The idea of the suffering artist has never appealed to me. Being here is suffering enough. 

 You can take a good picture of anything. A bad one, too. 

 Whatever it is about pictures, photographs, it’s just about impossible to follow up with words. They don’t have anything to do with each other. 

 I had this notion of what I called a democratic way of looking around, that nothing was more or less important. 

 I am at war with the obvious. 

 I don’t look at other photographs much at all. I don’t know why. I study my own a lot. 

 There is no particular reason to search for meaning. 

 The way I have always looked at it is the world is in color. And there’s nothing we can do about that. 

“Recognised today as the pioneer of colour photography and the personal documentary style, William Eggleston has been producing cutting-edge work for over 50 years,” say the organisers of the Sony World Photography Awards, which has selected the US photographer at this year’s recipient of the Outstanding Contribution to Photography award.

Untitled. 1695-1968 fr. Los Alamos, Beehive. Image © William Eggleston, Eggleston Artistic Trust, courtesy of Gagosian Gallery.

Untitled. 1980 fr – Lousianna Project – Hot Sauce. Image © William Eggleston, Eggleston Artistic Trust, courtesy of Gagosian Gallery.

Untitled, 1971-1974. Image © William Eggleston, Eggleston Artistic Trust, courtesy of Gagosian Gallery.

Read more: http://www.bjp-online.com/british-journal-of-photography/news/2259431/william-eggleston-to-receive-outstanding-contribution-to-photography-award#ixzz2PtCaP0FC
Subscribe to BJP and save money. Click here to save 29% today.

Burn magazine calls for entries in Emerging Photographer Fund

Photographers have been invited to submit their work for a chance to win a $10,000 grant for the completion of a personal project. From the Burn website we get this
We are now officially announcing the Emerging Photographer Fund grant for 2013.

We are awarding $15,000 to three winners and spreading the love.

One top winner will receive $10,000 and two runner-ups will each take home $2,500.

These grants are designed to support continuation of a photographer’s personal project. This body of work may be of either a journalistic mission or purely personal artistic imperative. It was initiated by David Alan Harvey in 2008 and is awarded by the Magnum Foundation.

We offer this to support emerging photographers in our craft. All types of photographers. This is not a photojournalism grant, nor an art photographers grant, but could be garnered by either or both. We just want to support committed authored photography of any ilk. Please click here and see who has secured this grant in the past and who our jurors have been. 2013 jury will be announced in the next few days!

The deadline for entry will be May 5, 2013 (6pm EST). No extensions for any reason.

© Matt Lutton

Presented by the Magnum Foundation and initiated by photographer and Burn magazine’s founder David Alan Harvey, the Emerging Photographer Fund offers, each year, grants designed to support the continuation of a photographer’s personal project.

 ”This body of work may be of either a journalistic mission or purely personal artistic imperative,” say the organisers. “We offer this to support emerging photographers in our craft. All types of photographers. This is not a photojournalism grant, nor an art photographers grant, but could be garnered by either or both. We just want to support committed authored photography of any ilk.”

One top winner will receive $10,000 and two runner-ups will each get $2500.

Photographers have until 05 May to submit up to 25 photos, with the winners announced in June on Burn and at the Look3 Festival of the Photograph.

 

Photographer Collection: William Hacker’s Portraits

Photographer William Hacker started taking pictures at age 21. Originally from Leslie, Missouri, Hacker now lives in Brooklyn, New York and works primarily with black and white analogue film.

“With film, I immediately felt more involved both mentally and physically with the entire photographic process, because there was a tangible object I could physically touch and hold. With digital, I never seemed to be completely satisfied or proud of the photograph I had taken, even if the content and composition was what I wanted or intended it to be.”

Hacker processes all of his own black and white film and makes his own prints in his darkroom which doubles as a bedroom in his small apartment.

“The fact that we live in a digital world makes it that much more difficult to shoot analogue because the supplies aren’t nearly as readily available as they once were – although I consider myself lucky because there is still a strong analogue presence in NYC compared to most cities. The analogue process will continue to be not only an increasing financial burden, but also very time consuming when compared to the quick workflows of digital. However, I will always greatly prefer a print made either in the darkroom or with another alternative process to a print made from a digital file.” This wonderful set of images is from The Denver Post, go here to see all of the portraits

Portrait of my father as he sits on the front porch of the 19th century log cabin he restored after nearly 100 years of vacancy. The cabin was first built in the 1850′s.

Portrait of a set of triplets. The photograph was taken shortly after a look-alike competition at the annual Twinsburg Festival located in Twinsburg, Ohio. For over 30 years, hundreds of twins gather from around the world to participate in the annual festival.

Portrait of a young boy dressed as a werewolf in Bedstuy, Brooklyn. Halloween was delayed in most areas of New York due to Hurricane Sandy.

all images William Hacker, see the rest here

A Portrait Photographer’s Guide To Coaching Clients

Lightstalking is a site that offers lots of advice and ideas for photographers. Often we find that what their contributors writes about directly echoes what we teach in our classes so we feel we are in touch with what Lightstalking has to say. This article by Tiffany Mueller, a professional music and fine art photographer, she blogs at Life Is Unabridged,  is about helping clients to pose better when they are having their portrait taken.

In our Portrait Photography course starting on June 6th we spend quite a bit of time explaining how important this is, we give tutorials on how to pose people and how to show people how to pose, that sounds the same thing but it isn’t. You might not be lucky enough to live in Oxford and so have the chance to attend one of our courses so this article by Tiffany will be of help.

©Keith Barnes   Portrait of John Duggan

Click Here: A Portrait Photographer’s Guide To Coaching Clients

Nadav Kander awarded First Prize in Staged Portraits Singles

One of our favourite photographers over here at OSP towers is Nadav Kander, it is good to see he has won 1st prize in the World Press Awards for a staged portrait.

Nadav Kander’s portrait of English actor Daniel Kaluuya has won him a World Press Photo prize.

Lauren Heinz at the BJP speaks to him here

How to take a photography portrait in 10 minutes

When time is short or the location is a disaster, every photographer needs some tried and tested ideas to fall back on. Here are a few tricks of the trade

David Bailey once said, “I’m very quick. Ten minutes, that’s about enough time for a portrait.”

How long should it take to shoot a portrait for the Guardian? Probably longer than the time our photographers are often given: interviews run over; subjects are busy people; it’s a daily newspaper, and arrangements are often made at the last minute; the pictures are wanted for a pressing deadline.

So you’re the photographer who has been assigned the job, you’ve rushed at the last minute to arrive at an unprepossessing building where the subject is finishing an interview in a dull room. It could be in a bland hotel or an office decorated in an even blander shade of beige. What do you do next?….READ MORE HERE

This useful article in The Guardian doesn’t really tell you anything you couldn’t work out for yourself by looking at pictures of important people in newspapers and magazines. Most photographers have their style, their go to way of photographing and rarely shift far from it. Jane Bown, who photographed for the Observer was a case in point. See how she always uses light from one direction with preferably a dark background. Very effective.

We teach about natural light portraiture on our Portrait courses

One photographer who makes is living photographing the very important and to whom 10 minutes would be luxury is Ander McIntyre his website is absolutely full of images of presidents, politicians, scientists, artists and others in the public eye and all photographed in about 2 minutes. Go and have a look at his remarkable portraits and learn.

 

 

All images ©Ander McIntyre

7 Basic Tips That Will Make Your Stock Photographs Sell

On Lightstalking this useful article by Rachael Towne,  a professional photographer and editor of Photoluminary.

The microstock model is a relative newcomer in the world of commercial photography. Previously, only an elite few were able to make a decent living with stock photography since it required a lot of specialized training, expensive equipment and the elusive knowing the right people at the right time. The advent of digital photography turned this traditional stock world upside down and has made it all but obsolete. Anybody with a decent digital camera and a basic knowledge of photography has the potential to earn money with their photos now. However, in order to really make it big and earn a living with microstock, there are some things that are very important to know and do.

Click Here: 7 Basic Tips That Will Make Your Stock Photographs Sell Like Hotcakes