Sales is scary stuff

Posted on October 2, 2010 by

I assume you’re reading this post because you want to sell your fine art photography. If so, then as a matter of full disclosure I should tell you that I’ve suffered rejection many times, and at times, I’ve been greatly discouraged.  However, I’ve hung in and over time I’ve sold my fine art images to owners in 20 countries, completed large and small scale corporate art programs, guide a National Park Service Artist in Residence program for the Mojave National Preserve, and I’ve enjoyed successful gallery shows.  I’ve also been lucky to counsel with some great art dealers, magazine editors, astute collectors and other purchasers of fine art photography. Along the way I have accumulated 30 years of successful sales and marketing experience outside of fine art photography, experience that has been a bonus for developing my fine art audience.

Translating what I know about finding an audience for your art is not easy for I don’t know what you know, what you’ve heard or what you believe. Further, this is a book length subject but I’m writing a blog, not a book, so I’m going to approach the subject with small bites of information.  To begin I’ll start with a general view of what I know and believe.

____________________________________________________________________________

A General View

If you want a fine art photography audience, then show up with the goods.

Mastery of themes, technique, and craft are all required if you expect to succeed as a fine art photographer.  The fine art field has its own rules and expectations just as fashion, weddings, and studio portrait work does. These rules are not creative rules, rules that you win applause for breaking. These rules are about the fine art audience which expects to see themes, images that bring new points of view (not a camera angle), and a level of understanding that exceeds vision beyond documentation.

. . . knowledgeable curators and buyers of fine art never ask is this work good. . .

Unfortunately, many photographers attempt to enter the field with portfolios of star images but they do not relate to each other or display an overt or an intrinsic theme. They leave a portfolio review and or gallery meeting crushed, because they have great work, but the work does not meet the meaning or vision standards of fine art photography.  Think of it this way:  you approach a gallery with great wildlife shots. The curator can see that you are great wildlife photographer but these are images of wildlife. What he is looking for is how you portray what you feel beyond the images of your wildlife.  Remember, most knowledgeable curators and buyers of fine art never ask  “is this work good?”.   Instead they ask, “how does this work change me, change others, and why is it here?”.

Does that mean that your work has to be the next big thing in order for you to succeed? No, but your work should be masterfully created, exquisitely printed or electronically displayed, with a theme fully explored. So, if your work lacks vision, voice, and a defined pallet, then keep creating until those elements emerge.  If you’re going to show up— you have to show up with the goods.

Sales is scary stuff.

“If I could say it in words there would be no reason to paint.”

Whenever I ask fine art photographers to discuss their audience development plans I usually get a shrug of the shoulders or a fearful facial grimace. For many, ‘sales’ is a scary, incomprehensible mystery. For others the fear of rejection is so great that they never even consider a sale and their wonderful work never finds an audience outside of a few relatives. Still others fear that no one will understand their art and thus trying to sell it is simply a waste of time. And I know some who see sales as a useless exercise in verbal persuasion. As Edward Hopper said, “If I could say it in words there would be no reason to paint.”

The raw truth is that all of us would rather make fine art images and leave the chore of selling our work to others. As one fine art photographer explained, “I’d rather grow a beak and go pick seeds with the birds then do sales.”

You need an audience

There is a school of thought that says, an artist does not need an audience. Producing your art is the reward in and of itself, and if one’s work is meaningful, others, presumably some important others, will discover your work and thus you.  But who is this important other that says your work is meaningful, and where do you need to be for discovery. At least Charlie Brown, Lucy and Linus hung out in the Pumpkin Patch putting themselves in the path of discovery should the Great Pumpkin appear (still waiting by the way).

There is another school of thought that says one should not trip the shutter or lift up a paint brushwithout first researching the market for his or her work. They recommend investigating what others have done, see the sales figures, and then imitate or copy their success. This may make sense when developing a new fast food franchise, but we are in the aesthetics business. Fine Art Photographers are subject explorers, commentators, and live in a world of visual metaphors. Imitation for purposes other than learning a technique leads to creative sterility.

Personally, I think until you have an audience your work is not complete. Until others participate in your art at some level or engage in ownership, your prints may as well remain in an archive box.  I believe that we need to get our work out there because audience feedback drives our growth.

Finding Your Audience— it’s a matter of outcome determination

Finding your audience is a matter of audience workflow. But first, you need to decide what type of audience you want and how to reach them.

In the sales world, we have a process known as outcome based selling. We define the results we wish to achieve for the sale of a product or service.  Next we determine the best channels open to deliver that product or service to our end users (think audience), and then we develop a workflow to achieve the desired outcome. No doubt, we may have to modify the workflow as we measure our results to put our product or service in front of a desired number of prospects. If we have the goods and manage the workflow properly then some of the prospects will become users of our product or services.

Developing an audience works in a similar manner. If you see yourself as one who wishes to chase the high end gallery sale of $1,000 plus and can live with a few sales at each show and a few shows each year, then pursue that channel for your audience development. If on the other hand you wish to develop a wide following with greater print/image ownership then you have other market entry channels, including galleries, open to you as well.  And in today’s market, one can integrate several channels to develop an audience, and each audience segment can participate with you at various entry points.

In the next blog, we will consider outcomes in greater depth and begin to define various channels for your work. Until then, consider your personal outcome, and consider what kind of audience will deliver that outcome.

©Bob Killen Fine Art 2010 all rights reserved

Posted in Developing an Audience, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Posted on September 17, 2010 by

In the fine art photography workshops that I teach the most attended is the one-day lecture on “Finding an Audience for your Work.”  Many that attend this lecture skip the creative workshops for themes, tools, and the concept of “Vision beyond Documentation,” and for a long time I wondered why.  After all when I look at the work from many of these photographers I often see great photography but fine art photography? — Not so much.

Then, recently, I recalled something I heard Charles Schultz, the creator of the Peanuts comic strip, say when we were both at a Writers Workshop in Montecito CA some years ago. He noted and I am paraphrasing here, how many of the attendees at the weeklong conference skipped important classes on creative writing, character development, and writing discipline, but no one missed the literary agent and publishing classes. When some of us asked him why, he said “Everyone wants to be the World War I Flying Ace without learning to fly. Second, I think many wait for the Great Pumpkin to deliver us.”

Schultz’s comments about writers are equally appropriate for fine art photographers. Many of us focus how do I sell my prints, become famous, adored, loved, controversial, and never have to worry about income again.  Creating Art is its own power of seduction, a Walter Mitty dream that says a benefactor will discover us, and that our prints belong on a gallery wall, somewhere, somehow. And maybe we do belong on the wall at the Getty or MOMA, but more often than not, we fail to take the actions necessary to match our goals or dreams. We skip those workshops that help us grow, skip over sales and marketing fundamentals, and pass by other real-life lessons because we believe that art is magic and not subject to the rules of commerce.  We believe that we exist for the single purpose of making art and that pricing, exchanging money, promotions, audience development is the work of ‘others’.

We create and wait, and wait, for the ‘Great Pumpkin,’ to deliver us an audience.

Another reason that artists and would be artists attend marketing seminars with little participation in development programs is for time and income valuation. They consider such questions as, “Is there any real money in art?” “Can I make that kind of money?” “What does it take and how long?”  Or put another way, “Is making art worth my time?”

From the comic strip, we know that the Great Pumpkin has not arrived. And while the time value of money question is realistic and important, real value is about how much joy does your art bring to you and your audience. So if you are out of the pumpkin patch and into the joy of art then it’s reasonable to assume that you can develop an audience for your work.

But how do we kick this audience football over the goal line Charlie Brown?

First, don’t let anyone steal your football just as Lucy does when Charlie (Chuck to her) is approaching kickoff. This means don’t let anyone steal your dream, and thus your joy. Second, just as you have a workflow for your fine art projects, there is a workflow for developing an audience.   So I’m going to spend the next several months delivering blogs on how to develop an audience for the fine art photographer. This information will build upon my class seminar but with greater ‘how to’ details and channel marketing programs, all of which comes from my own experiences in fine art and other product sales. To provide a broader range of information I’ve also incorporated experiences from other successful fine art photographers, gallery operators, magazine editors who support fine art, critics and event reviewers.

You can follow along, comment, learn, try and test these techniques with your own audience development efforts, or you can wait for the Great Pumpkin.

©Bob Killen Fine Art 2010 all rights reserved

Health Update: Thanks to all the readers, friends, family, and colleagues for their good wishes, prayers, cards, and power positive vibes. The cancer prognosis at this time is good and surgery will be on the 4th of October. In the interim, I’ve endured many tests and I look forward to getting back into the workshops by the end of the year.

Posted in Developing an Audience, Shows / Exhibits | 2 Comments

From Now to Wow – Lightroom3

Posted on September 5, 2010 by

Lightroom3

Many photographers in my Fine Art workshops often ask about incorporating Lightroom into the workflow for the heavy lifting that we do in Adobe Camera Raw. I heartedly endorse Lightroom3 for this part of the Fine Art workflow, and for other high volume workflows, as well. The primary advantage to Lightroom is the ability to quickly sort and catalog the images, and most of us enjoy the ease of creating various file outputs.  I am big fan of the print engine, and I have begun to print from this source in my studio for many projects.

So how do you get up to speed on Lightroom3? The shortest distance between “I know nothing” and “Wow, would you look at that,” is to purchase Lightroom3 by Nolan Hester.  You can follow this book on its blog, too.

Nolan’s credits include instructional books for all of the previous Lightroom releases, and the author is a professional photographer with hands-on experience in the wet and computer darkroom.   His instructional style is crisp and clear. The text is well-illustrated, and it is fun read without the usual “happy talk.” One gets the feeling that the author is looking over your shoulder as he guides you, step by step, from RAW to finished image.

Nolan Hester

Whether you know Lightroom from previous releases (or think you do), or Lightroom3 is your starting point, you will find this book fills two important instructional goals. First, this is a great primer. Second, it’s a great reference for those processes that we sometimes forget.  My copy is within arm’s reach of my tablet.

If you want to become productive within a matter of hours, then Hester’s book is the place to start and the place to finish.

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The Pessimism Market

Posted on August 30, 2010 by

The number one product in America today is pessimism. You don’t have to buy it; it’s free and available on TV, newspapers, blogs, and radio waves, pummeling us with foreclosures, double dips, unemployment numbers and other sky-is-falling news.

Truth is, in the photography world, as elsewhere, times have been better. Photographic sales are slow to backwards. The retail print market took a big hit when the management of the Decor Expo Atlanta canceled their show for the second year in a row. Long Beach and LA Art shows never got off the ground this year either, and Giclee Prints, the mainstay of painting reproductions, which depend on volume buyers, are in the tank.  More than half the frame shops on LA’s Westwood Boulevard or “Art Alley,” as many of us call it, have shuttered their doors. Tony Chelsea galleries in New York are short on high-end investors, and my e-mail from Fine Art Photographers indicates a near panic about the future of art.

Are the economic storm clouds portending an F5 tornado for the art market, or is something else taking place?

Let’s look at a few facts.

Industry researchers report that the art business generated revenue of 7.83 billion dollars in 2009, a 15% decline from 2008 (source: Ibis research).  Fifteen percent is a downer, but in comparison to most industries, this is market correction, not a crash. Researchers forecast another 10% decline in 2010, but upon close inspection, the reports note that while piece count is down marginally the decline in total sales is more a function of deflation. Each piece brings less income than it did in previous years.  That’s an indication of a market readjusting to a new price point level.

Photographers should note that Fine Art Photography is a sliver of the total art market and accounts for approximately 8% of all the sales, but it is 8% of a big number. Some 29,000 retail outlets  sell or distribute some form of art, which includes retail volume poster dealers such as Michael’s, Target, Aaron Brothers, to part-time art galleries that are open on weekends. It’s estimated that there are 6,400 dealers who earn 50% or more of their income from the sale of photographic prints, Fine Art or otherwise. At the upper echelons there are approximately 60-70 galleries worldwide who sell and manage famous photographic artists (dead, alive and not sure) who are in demand by serious collectors. Sales in this group are quite secretive but insiders estimate that this handful of dealers accounts for 40% of the total photographic sales dollars, and perhaps 5% of the of the total print pieces.

A time of new opportunity…

Based upon these and other facts, I cannot find any evidence of an economic F5 whistling down upon us. I also do not see a return to the blue-sky prices or volumes that we have seen in years past. What I do see is old business models giving way to new opportunities for Fine Art creators, and creative dealers. In fact, I think we are on the cusp of some of the biggest and best opportunities in Fine Art ever, and for the next several blogs I will spend time examining how you can grow an audience for your art that will match your goals.

As for the pessimism, the recession or whatever it’s called, I would encourage you to just say “No,” and refuse to participate.

Posted in The Art in Reality | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Cancer comes…

Posted on August 25, 2010 by

Dripping Springs Texaco Star

As some of you already know, I recently learned that I have bladder cancer, an illness that demands immediate attention and one that will change my work schedule for a bit.  And, of course, illness always comes when you are in the middle of some successful art project, teaching program, or when you are tutoring a new, bright light in the creative use of Photoshop.  Such is the stuff and way of life.

Cancer is a scary word and disease, but I intend to stay on the right side of the green grass for some time to come, and I currently have a positive prognosis for the long term.  This is not an end of the road situation, but a bend in the road, and I will have to endure some significant surgery. The recovery period could be 90-120 days. I intend to return to work, and according to my physicians, I’ll probably be in the studio in 30-60 days after surgery and able to return to the classroom in February.

Many of you have called and asked if there is something, you can do to help. Well there is!

Prayer is welcomed, if you are so inclined. If not, your good wishes and thoughts are much appreciated. For those of you pursuing Fine Art Photography, keep shooting, creating, printing and share your work with me by uploading jpegs or tiffs of your projects. Nothing would do more for my spirits than to see each of you making progress and achieving success with your art. For those of you who work in other fields please keep me informed about your world as well. And, for the many friends who are deeply engaged in Mojave National Preserve Art Programs and desert preservation projects, please keep me in the loop about your success, trials and challenges.

For me, downtime is not dead time; I’ll keep the blog and website active (please subscribe to updates on the blog if you have not already), improve lesson plans, catch up on projects, and read that stack of photo magazines that seems to be growing like July corn in my office.  I’m also trying to turn my medical experience into a thematic project as well (who knows; conceptual images made while under anesthesia may have a market).

While I’m out, Michelle Bracey will take the shop reins. You can reach her at 714.521.5229 (studio) or at 562.902.0200 (cell). Her e-mail is michelle@bobkillen.com

Take care and see you on the blog soon. . .

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Defining “Fine Art Photography” – The last word?

Posted on August 1, 2010 by

Greetings!

I’ve been off exploring the new features in Photoshop CS5, revising my workflow to optimize the wonderful changes in this upgrade, and preparing to teach some new techniques. I’ll blog about CS5 down the line, but let me say that if you are a photographer or a visual artist, this is a must-have upgrade.

While away, I had a chance to discuss the definition of “Fine Art” with experts in the Fine Arts, a frequent subject of this blog, and one I find deeply interesting. I was surprised to learn that my definition, “when the viewer and creator can collectively synthesize ‘what is’ and ‘what is not’ Fine Art Photography,” is as strong or as weak any expert definitions. Some characterizations: “Fine Art tells us more about what we see by what is not seen;” “Aesthetic truth;” “Creative vision of the photographer as artist;” “Vision beyond Documentation;” “an art form developed primarily for aesthetics and/or concept rather than practical application;” “to elucidate or decorate textual information,” and  “It’s like porn, I’ll know it when I see it.”  OK the last definition came from my plumber— a great guy, an expert in drains, but… Fine Art, not so much.

Deferring, Contrasting, and Branding…

I also heard from several sharp minds that defining Fine Art is also a matter of language through linguistic devices such as deferring, contrasting, and branding.

Deferring is the method most artists use. The artist’s value definition for his work occurs by deferring to times past. For example Monet, questioned if artists were copying reality, and then created works to represent his impression of reality. Marcel Duchamp claimed that art is no more than the very gesture of calling something art and renamed a urinal ‘the fountain.’ Andy Warhol went further by rejecting and reversing every symbol of traditional art. Whether famous or unknown, every artist defines his art by deferring in time and responding to what came before him.

Another method is contrasting. For example, the term “Fine Art” opposes the term “commercial art.”  Contrasting suggests that Fine Arts are awe-inspiring, inspirational and intellectually weighty, whereas commercial arts are earthy, routine and well… commercial. So, by contrast, one may think that to be a Fine Art Photographer you cannot be a commercial photographer. The fact is, most photographers work in both disciplines.

The marketplace brands ‘Fine Art’ with contrast comparison language too. Fine Art Photographers often call themselves “Fine Art Photographer,” to differentiate the definition of “photographer.” The term “Fine Art Photographer”, leverages the value associated with the term “Fine Art.”

Branding is often more a matter of association than substance. Fine Art Photographers benefit by associating themselves with the term “Fine Arts.” But, to be a successful “Fine Art Photographer,” you have to recognize that if the work looks and ‘feels’ like commercial photography, then it’s tough to associate your work with the symbolic value of “Fine Arts.”

What is to come?

Language delineators and definitions for Fine Art have and will change with time and technology. The digital revolution of today is already obsolescing the term “Fine Art Photographer” in some circles with “visual artist.”   It will be interesting to see if term “Fine Art” still has meaning in 2020.

Posted in The Art in Reality | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

A Dinner Party

Posted on June 27, 2010 by

Doug  Gastélum’s (El Imagenero) excellent Fine Art exhibit,  A Dinner Party, began as an idea in a workshop I led last February.  During a class discussion, various Fine Art photographers spent an hour proposing, accepting, modifying, and rejecting various theme concepts. When Doug’s turn came, he launched the idea of capturing guests arriving, enjoying, and leaving a dinner party, with a theme emphasis portraying the spirit of the individuals and the motion of the party, with little play on faces and character domination.

The theme electrified us, and fellow workshop photographers started to hum their approval and offer suggestions. Doug committed to the project, and the rest, as they say, is history.

You can (and should!) see A Dinner Party, which runs through July 19th at the Utopia Dinner Restaurant and Gallery in Long Beach, CA (1st and Linden).  I also encourage you to own a print or two. I highly recommend the book, as well; a finely-crafted work that belongs on your coffee table. Yes, I’m proud to promote those who have been in one my workshops, but I do not pass out accolades lightly.  The results must extend the viewer’s emotional range, and bring a deep sense of enjoyment and appreciation of the artist’s expression, sans any visual clichés. Doug’s theme and his tightly crafted workflow execution do exactly that, and more.

A Dinner Party is a collection of 18 images filled with the edgeless hum of modern life. There is a handsome quality to the participants, a visual force that tells us they are successful people. Doug also captured an intellectual rigor that lets you imagine the participants have escaped the grand schemes and invisible rhythms of their daily work lives, and now relish the social and personal moments of the dinner party.

Select images of women in preparation for social acceptance as the magical hour approaches are sensual and sensitive, and images from around the table fizz with a cherry-cola like intimacy.  And the costar of the show is the variety in camera positions which pops the work with internal scale, space, light, and detail. As you pass by the last image, you realize that each image in the exhibit has its own complex philosophy; its own revelation about them, and perhaps us, the viewers.

Beyond the rapt aesthetic and solid social values evident in this show and the book, are excellent examples for new and past photographers who participate in my Fine Art workshops. Choose a theme, add your voice, and complete the project. El Imagenero’s success and your enjoyment are due to the four P’s: passion, perseverance, practice, and perspiration.

You can learn more about El Imagenero by visiting his Facebook page.

Enjoy!

Posted in Student Projects and Images | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

Quick Tip – Drobo

Posted on June 11, 2010 by

I have a tech note that I want to pass along.

I often recommend Drobo from Data Robotics to my workshop groups as an excellent backup system. It’s multi-tiered hard drive capabilities provides redundancy on an external basis that is better than an internal Raid system. This is because photographers need to keep our second hard drive space fairly open for Photoshop cache swap files. There are several good external systems, but I have been more than satisfied with Drobo. However, If you are upgrading to Windows 7, or you are purchasing a new system and have the Windows 7 operating system, be aware of the following with a Drobo:

“Do not use the Windows back up command with Drobo. Long story short, they are not compatible.”

Use the Drobo software to set up your backup schedules or some other backup software such as Syncback.

Check their website and see: Best Practices. Also, take a look at their knowledge index.

Be safe and back up. . .

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Postmodernism – Deconstruction and Fine Art Photography

Posted on June 7, 2010 by

1973 saw the first printing of John Szarkowski’s seminal work, ‘Looking at Photographs.’ This book documents the historical ascendency of photography from the Daguerreotype plate of the 1850s, through and up to the robust 35mm captures of 1973. Within these pages are one hundred images from the Museum of Modern Art’s Photography Collection, and not one is in color.

1973 is also a demarcation line for Fine Art Photography. It’s a fuzzy line, but the classical impressions of Adams, White, Stieglitz (who was actually a pictorialist) Weston, Paul Caponigro, and the gritty social commentary of Strand and others were at or near the nadir of their acceptance.  Suddenly, many were finding their works on the grand stages of MOMA, and the National Gallery in Washington. Some were beginning to experience financial recognition for their work, as well.

Under the silk of this classical acceptance there was an undertone of dissent. By the end of the seventies, this had become a full-throated rebellion against classical landscapes and the purified portraiture of the time. The harmonic street photography of Henri-Cartier Bresson gave way to images of street trash. Suddenly, the uplifting works of the recent masters gave way to works of guilt, deconstruction, and portrait faces filled with unyielding hostility.

Post Modernism had arrived on the Fine Art Photography scene, or in the slang of gallery operators, “Pomo.” The definition of ‘Fine Art Photography” morphed and Pomo works received applause for its unending ambiguity, celebration of the banal, the ugly, and a new cultural icon byword crept into our vocabulary, ‘whatever.’

So what is this stuff we call Pomo? It might be easier if I took a crack at explaining Modernism first, since post Modernism is well, you guessed it—after Modernism, which by the way came after romanticism, which came after…

In the 1890s, a strand of thinking emerged which rejected 18th century romanticism. The assertion was that it was necessary to push aside previous norms entirely, rather than merely revising past knowledge in light of new technology. The growing movement in art paralleled such developments as the Theory of Relativity in physics, the internal combustion engine, industrialization, and the increased role of the social sciences in public policy. Reality came into question, and if technical and religious restrictions, which had governed human activity, were falling, then art, too, would radically change. Thus, in the first fifteen years of the twentieth century, a series of writers, thinkers, and artists made the break with traditional means of organizing literature, painting, and music.

The invention of photography occurred within the Modernism period. As we have seen in previous blogs, almost 50 years passed before photography received any recognition as an art form. Photography was the perfect technology for the Modernism era, for this was a time of rationality, technical progress and the power of empirical sciences— the basic hallmarks of Western thought and culture. Modernist photography adhered to ‘rules’ and concentrated on ‘grand-theme’ subjects with warmth, ‘passion’, grandeur and the beauty of all that is around us. In Landscape Photography, think of Ansel Adams as a consummate modernist. In terms of creative exploration, think Weston and White among many other powerful voices of the time.

As it relates to art, Postmodernism means just about any form that challenges modern concepts and concerns. Painters and music led the way into this period, and Photography, as it has since its invention, followed later. Postmodernist photography rejects the ‘rules’ and concentrates on ‘banal’ subject matter, with a dispassionate, cold, and heavy focus on the ugly around us. Pomo is perhaps more about the underside of ‘culture’ then about art, per se. Movies such as the counterculture hit, Easy Rider with the late Dennis Hopper, or the character Holden in the Catcher in the Rye, are cultural icons of post Modernism. The TV hit Seinfeld celebrated the theme of “nothing”’ as a humorous counterweight to all things modern. Pomo, by design, does not reflect the rational beliefs of the modern period. Cultural Pomo commentators often say, “As long as you believe in consensus reality, you will never experience true reality,” or “Have you ever thought about the not-nowness of now?” “It’s really about me, for my work is the alpha, omega and at the end of the day, I am the event.”

Think William Eggleston as a consummate Postmodernist, but also consider Jeff Wall, Jo Spence and Cindy Sherman. Some you will enjoy; some may turn your stomach.

The two movements are often a mixed marriage and a clear definition is like life itself – messy. Each movement has its share of legitimate artists and images to celebrate. But, Pomo photographers, with their focus on theoretical intellectual issues, often create poor compositions of dreary, tedious subjects, and then, through over-the-top Photoshop techniques, create prints of huge proportions to hide the lack of substance.  It is this lack of substance that art critics often celebrate.

Since 1973, Postmodernist photography has steadily ascended.  Today it dominates much of the gallery and museum world.  What it fails to produce is the revelation of the elliptical view, the unexpected detail, and the lyrical truth that speaks to our spirit on a gut level far beyond intellectual concepts. At its deepest level of practice, it’s about deconstructing all of the rules and belief systems of the 20th century that govern us at a rational and spiritual level.

How long are we going to deconstruct the 20th century, anyway? What are your thoughts?

Posted in The Art in Reality | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

The Trinity: An Era Past

Posted on May 17, 2010 by

I’ve blogged on the definition of “Fine Art Photography” over the course of a few posts in recent weeks.  It’s an elusive subject; one that I described as, “when viewer and creator can collectively synthesize what is and what is not “Fine Art Photography.”  But, there is more to it.

Fine Art Photography is about finding the significant in the insignificant, and separating the extraordinary from the ordinary.  It is not about documentation, although it may document.

Ultimately, it is about a vision that transcends documentation.  Fine Art images are not about what we see, but about what we create from our seeing, and from our feelings.  In practice, it’s about expression!

The Pioneers

The three individuals I recently blogged about, Stieglitz, White, and Adams (the “Father, Son and Holy Ghost” of the early Fine Art era), all produced work that helped to shape the definition of the craft.  I chose them because they were leaders with skills beyond the art they created.  They were the icons of their times, who pushed back the frontiers of photographic art acceptance.

Interestingly, the three shared many other traits beyond their work.   All three had a deep connection to music.  All were prolific writers, and created insightful essays about the art of photography.  At one time or another, all of them owned and operated galleries.  Each one opened doors with their work:  Adams’ work propelled the rapid expansion of the US National Park System.  White’s critical essays married Jungian theory to visual expression (in particular, to his abstractions).  His leadership at Aperture magazine provided a voice of authority for Fine Art Photography.  Stieglitz pushed back artistic prejudice with his essays, galleries, and his cultural pictorialism.

Foundations for the Digital Age

No doubt, many others contributed to the growth of this genre. Bill Brant, Paul Strand, Paul Caponigro (a personal favorite), Edward Weston, Dorthea Lange, and Imogen Cunningham are just a few voices that advanced Fine Art Photography.  But, Adams, White, and Stieglitz were the big rocks that fell into the art pond of the time.  Each of them splashed down and made waves; waves that created beachheads for the rest of us on the shores of art.  Today, their legacies live on with equal portions of truth and fiction, yet, their processes are both foundational and relevant in this digital age.

Stieglitz passed away in 1946, the Father of this trinity of leaders.  White died in 1976, and Adams in 1984.  The ending of their era brings to mind a verse from Don McLean’s American Pie:

“And the three men I admire most, the father, son, and the Holy Ghost, they caught the last train for the coast, the day the music (Fine Art) died.”

Did Fine Art Photography Die?

Today, a cottage industry of followers and aficionados says, “Fine Art Photography left with that trinity.”  I see it this way:  As White moved on, reliable color came to the Fine Art Photographer.  By the time Adams went to the big darkroom in the sky, a new movement known as postmodernism erupted on the scene.

In future blogs, we’ll explore postmodernism, an intellectual approach that defined Fine Art Photography as something akin to a “Rebel without a Cause.”

Please share your thoughts and observations by leaving a comment.  Thanks!

Posted in The Art in Reality | Tagged , , | 1 Comment