I was recently asked the questions below and what follows is my personal response.
What type of photography do you produce?
What is the purpose of your photography?
Do you consider your type of photography FINE ART?
How do you define the term FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHY?
These are deep considerations that we will always wrestle with in an ongoing and evolving way, especially with the explosion of interest in photography that will continue to grow, and we are finding that the labels of the past no longer fit us anymore (If they ever really did!). It is important to have these discussions that will lead us to new ideas, terminologies that we will create for ourselves, and ultimately result in new ways of seeing photographic imagery. With so much going on out there and the bombardment of images we see every day (100’s more per day than previous generations), it is easy to become overwhelmed so I believe we have to look inward to our own ideas first. This is a must. A new visual language of the eye is emerging for sure don’t you think?! It is exciting.
The words Fine Art Photography, Master Photographer, names for movements like Surrealism, and other terms have been overused until they no longer have the same meaning today and have in fact morphed away from their original meaning. The term “Fine Art Photography” was coined as early as the mid 1800s and was firmly established by the turn of that century to denote the visionary aspect of the photographer as an artist with a unique idea… artists using a camera to make art from within themselves, not just to document a representation of reality by means of a common scientific technique that many photographers replicated. Today, what some consider to be Fine Art Photography is often governed by traditional rules and technical processes that many people follow and as a result it is no longer in vogue for many galleries and collectors (unless you were a very famous and preferably deceased photographer!). Perhaps the field has become diluted with so many shooters following a similar technique or doctrine as an exercise, and not a form of true self expression. With so many new photographers out there, and most everyone owning some type of camera now, everybody is free to call themselves a photographer. So at this point in history it is our intention that sets us apart and moves us in the direction of our own authenticity.
We have to be careful that Fine Art Photography for us doesn’t mean just practicing a pre-existing genre. When Jazz was invented it was the musical outpouring of an age. There was no name for it. That was penned later to try to explain the energy and raw uncontrollable emotion of that sound. It was not pre-scripted. Then it turned into a technique and genre of music that many people performed and still play today, but only the great ones knew how to make it their own self expression. We have to keep struggling to be the inventors of our own new work and then the name may come. Maybe when something reaches the point of being named is when it starts to change or diminish in force?!
In the past there were also much firmer categories of photography with not much crossover as there is today, but my work (sometimes the same image) has been used for Publishing, Fashion, Art Installations and also Advertising, so if the photograph is appropriate for multiple categories it is even harder to name a genre. When people ask what type of photography I do, it is difficult to explain without showing them! I do not have a name or properly worded description that really fits, although I have written a lot and tried.
It’s important to learn to write about our photographic quest, starting out just with personal notes and thoughts about what we would like for it to mean, even before beginning to create the work. It gives the strong starting point of intention… I wrote a personal quote here that explains a lot about my past process and how I came to terms with it. Here’s the quote just scroll down to the italic part… http://www.thethirdeyephoto.com/the-artists-statement-smackdown-with-keith-jolly-and-robin-davis/
The struggle for future work is always with us, forever ongoing and should be. That’s what will make it good! But the truly most important thing is to keep shooting so you will naturally keep evolving. We can never rest on the laurels of our past work. Picking up the camera inspires me to do more, to try something new, and have another “Ah-Ha!” moment, and then new series start to evolve and unfold. If I get stuck I go to a subject with meaning that I really care about. I like to think the image is waiting there, to be found, to speak through my camera.
Man Woman Panorama
All Text and Image ©2015 Robin Davis