Photography IS art

[Piorn]

Sure, everything is art in the right light.
Art is something humans make up when things evoke feelings, and the more abstract or random the feelings are, the "deeper" the art.
A smiley face evokes "happy", so it's very shallow art. A picture or a poem can evoke more complex feelings like nostalgia, an abstract longing or other feelings.
It's thus also highly subjective.
"art" in itself has no value, it only gains the value by being observed, and anything that can be observed can thusly be considered art.

 

[Toilet]

Photography is an art form it's just the main problem plaguing art in general is postmodernism and the focus on the self that comes hand in hand with relativism. Now there is no such thing as bad art because it's all subjective due to the fact we have such focus on the self and the message instead of the objective quality.

It's the same school of thinking that says a crude clay figurine of a man performing autofellatio has the same (or more) value than a well crafted wood carved scene that took hundreds of hours to complete (this actually happened).

 

[Lightknight]

Eh, I'd say that SOME photography is art. I think sometimes it is merely chronicling events the same as taking notes on a page. For example, if I took a picture of a painting, would the photograph itself become art or merely a depiction of it?

I place a sort of distinction in terminology here. There is a difference, in my opinion, between taking a photo and creating a photo. Creating in my mind implies some sort of intention to create art. Especially scenarios in which the person taking the photo arranges the objects in a way they believe is more aesthetically pleasing. The photo itself can also be altered and changed after the fact in ways that would make it far more believable as art.

But sure, a person could accidentally take a picture that later turns out to be beautiful. But I think that hits a kind of tree in the forest making a noise with no one to hear it problem. Until the picture is found, evaluated, and presented as such it may not be art.

One question to ask is whether or not photographers create art in taking the picture, or if they are merely capturing a picture of art? If they arrange objects in a beautiful way, is that them creating the art and the picture is just a record of it? This question totally exacerbates the subject.

 

[spartan231490]

Photography is not art. It is not an act of creation, it is an act of capture, or at best, interpretation. Neither is art.

In that case, neither is painting. Unless you want to argue Leonardo painted the Mona Lisa out of thin air, instead of being the portrait of someone sitting in front of him...

Nice reach, but swing and a miss. The Mona Lisa was not captured, it was created. He sat there and put stroke after stroke of paint on a piece of wood and created an image.

 

[MerlinCross]

Photography is an art. Or at least a skill/tech that can be used to capture what people would call 'art'.

It's like video games. It CAN be an art but not all of them are 'art'. I mean me taking a photo of a cat isn't art, but some of these nature photographers that capture sunsets, playful animals, and breath taking waterfalls I would argue are a form of art.

 

[RicoADF]

Of course photography is art. I'm actually somewhat surprised to find people disputing this.

I think what their saying is that a photograph/movie/book etc are not inherently art, the photo/movie/game etc needs to be trying to convey an idea or thought to be artistic. The idea being that the reason behind the entertainment is what makes it art not the technology used. I can see where their coming from, but think its more of an academic debate and for practical reasons all photos/movies/songs and games should be considered art by default, even if only for legal simplicity.

 

[chikusho]

Honestly, I didn't get "photography isn't an art" from that critique at all.
He's simply making a difference between artful photography and snapping a cool pic with an ipad.

From my perspective he's criticizing the piece not the medium. It's just the first line that throws you off a bit.