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Fine Art and Photography

By Helen V. Hutchings©

Editor’s Note: Our first article (written by the late Strother MacMinn) explored differences between Fine Art and Illustration. The second in our series discusses photography as a medium of fine art. Our writer is a respected journalist/editor and no stranger to the arts or the debate. (Note: First recorded in 1767, the term ‘Fine Art’ is defined as art created for purely aesthetic expression, communication, or contemplation. In other words: ‘Art for art's sake.’)
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Camera obscura, the earliest rudimentary form of photography, was in limited use as early as the 13th century. Although truly primitive compared to today’s digital equipment, this marvel did offer a means of recording an image.

The next big advance in photography wouldn’t happen until 1839 – and two gentlemen working independently and unknown to one another would actually accomplish that development simultaneously. Englishman William Henry Fox Talbot and Frenchman Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre each developed the process of affixing the image to a glass plate. Alchemy and equipment improvements would advance at a steady pace from this point on.

But even as early as the late 1800s – the time of wet-plate colloid – the debate had begun: is the photographer operating the camera merely a recorder of events, or an artist?

The Left Bank in Paris, France late in the 19th century was the epicenter of the anti-establishment movement for all of the arts. The medium of photography made its contribution to the revolt against Neoclassicism according to art critic John Canaday in his book Culture Gulf. “Photography,” Canaday wrote, “created changes so fundamental, so preempting the foundations upon which painting has always rested, that we must recognize the calamitous truth; painting in the 20th century has mostly been a matter of redesigning a weakened super-structure.”

The Impressionists and Post-Impressionists alike used photography as part of the search for the essence of their art. Avant-garde photographers promoted their work as fine art.

Probably the earliest widely recognized automotive photo artist is Jacques-Henri Lartigue. Born in 1894, this son of a wealthy Parisian financier did not have to concern himself with earning his daily bread. Thus freed from daily toils, he pursued his twin loves of photography and fascination with the speed and power of the automobile. The entire collection of Lartigue’s expressive photographs, his cameras and his diary belong to the French Ministry of Culture, which works with museums worldwide so the public can enjoy the images. See http://www.lartigue.org

A contemporary recorder of things automotive is the recognized and acclaimed Jesse Alexander. The images created by Alexander’s skill and eye transcend merely recording an event however. His sensitivity and ability to convey emotions have placed his photography into the realm of art.

Today, with the advent of digital photography, Adobe Photoshop and like programs, the discussion has another talking point. Some take the position that digital art isn’t true art and likewise that photos altered digitally aren’t, or can’t be, ‘real art’ either. Others consider it simply another medium of expression available to an artist. As with watercolors or oils for painting, bronze or resins for sculpting, creating art with the computer and/or camera is a medium that must be learned and mastered.

It is the artist’s skill, talent and ability to express him- or herself visually – coupled with the viewer’s knowledge, perception and personal taste – that is at the crux of any question concerning the visual arts.

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Images shown, left: Lincoln/Mercury – Night Train, painting by Jack Juratovic

and right: Packard and the 20th Century Limited, photography by Robert Michaels.

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