The purpose of this post is to update, and entirely contradict, my first post on “What is Art?” written at hour zero of this project, in November 2017
[Read more…]Revised Thoughts on Art
Surrealist Photography
[Read more…]“Surrealism is not a style but a state of mind. It aims to subvert reality.”
Tate Modern, describing the Surrealism Beyond Boarders Exhibition, February 2022.
Roland Barthes’ Camera Lucida
Roland Barthes (1915-1980) was a French philosopher and literary theorist, he was not a photographer. This book deals with the question: what is a photograph? from that perspective.
Barthes describes the essence of photography as distinct from both art and history.
Art, he contests, is the result of a creative process undertaken by an artist; whereas a photograph is primarily the preservation of “something that was”.
History is a perspective on past events; always open to challenge and contradiction. A photograph, by contrast, is undeniably “something that was”, and it is up to the viewer to infer meaning. A meaning which, as I show below, may change from person to person or evolve over time.
The photographer, and the subject, if it is a person aware of being photographed, can suggest an implied meaning. However, without knowledge of this intent, the viewer may see the image differently, and derive a meaning entirely personal to them.
Tim Flack’s fine book on horse photography, ‘Equus’, ends with this quote from Barthes’ book: “Ultimately a photograph looks like anyone except the person it represents.”
[Read more…]LAB Colour
Photoshop’s route to more vibrant colours via an alternative colour space. This post looks at the Photoshop LAB colour space:
- how it mirrors the biology of human vision at a deeper level than the RGB of the retina’s cones
- how it can be effectively manipulated.
Dynamic Abstraction through Multiple-Exposure
