The Easter art exhibition has come to an end after four intensive days. It is both physically and mentally exhausting to be actively present during a 5-hour session, but at the same time fantastic fun. The group’s exhibitions of five completely different artists have had many visitors and a lot of works have been sold.
Many visitors were very engaged and willing to ask questions. One question in particular that surprised us a lot was that several visitors claimed that our photographs are not photographs but paintings. They firmly claimed that a photograph cannot look like ours. They were not convinced by our arguments…
What is the reason for this? Has today’s image consumption changed the view of what a “photograph” is? Today’s media and digital technologies mean that we constantly are exposed to pictures and we always have a camera handy available in our mobile phones. A camera that gives each of us the opportunity to take technically very good pictures in all situations; even under difficult lighting conditions. Probably almost all pictures are seen on screens, which probably affects our perception of what a “photograph” should look like.
A counter-question that we wish we had asked in retrospect is whether it is an advantage or disadvantage that our photographs look like “paintings”.
Another visitor could not accept that a photographic image is “art”. An artist creates a painting, while a photograph is just “snapped”… One can sense the old discussion that a photograph is only an objective recording of the world’. One then forgets that the photographic process; the old analog as well as the digital, is based on several steps where light rays are converted into an image that the viewer can see. Each step in this process can be influenced and used by the photographer to convey his perception and what the photographer saw in the subject.
The ease of getting good pictures with today’s cameras in mobile phones probably reinforces the perception that it’s just a matter of “snapping” and leaving all interpretation of the light to the technology in the mobile phone. Note that several pictures in our exhibition were taken with a mobile phone and that they have been post-processed in our “digital darkroom”.
Several photographers exhibited their works during the Easter art tour. Fantastic photographs printed on the best material as “fine art prints”. The photographers’ lists of qualifications are impressive and include many recognized art institutions. The self-assumed title “art photographer” occurs. So photography is certainly art!
Our Easter Exhibition Program – “PHOTOGRAPS FROM HANÖ BAY”: