Conceptual photography is all about conveying a concept or idea. Conceptual photography – as a part of conceptual art – is a photography genre in which the artist makes a photograph of a concept or idea. Unlike many other genres where moments or scenes unfold and the photographer captures them, conceptual photographers start with an idea and set about finding a way to illustrate it visually. In this type of photography, you try to convey a concept or message with a photograph.
What is conceptual photography?
Conceptual photography is all about ideas, symbols, and themes. It’s the perfect way to express yourself and make the most of your creative freedom. In this article we’ve sourced 10 imaginative and beautiful examples of this wonderful type of photography.
Conceptual art emerged at the end of the sixties, bringing a new meaning to photography that transcends its use for portraiture, landscapes and snapshots. Rather than two-dimensional, soundless images, conceptual photographs are full of meaning, using creativity to evoke abstract ideas and emotions like love, nostalgia, loneliness and the passing of time to arouse a reaction from the viewer.
One of the main features of conceptual photography is the fact that artists design the scenes and prepare them meticulously to accentuate their messages. This sometimes involves including impossible or exaggerated components or manipulating the piece with digital editing for high impact.
History of Conceptual Photography
Fine art photographers have been using conceptual photographs to produce incredible projects and images since the dawn of photography in the late 1800s. The genre isn’t confined to just fine artists, though. Advertisers and illustrators have turned to conceptual photography to help promote products for years.
The use of conceptual photography in marketing and advertisement led to the rise of the stock photography industry and has become one of the largest areas for professional photographers to earn a living today.
One of the world’s first introduction to conceptual photography was Hippolyte Bayard’s Self Portrait as a Drowned Man shot in 1840. The now iconic photograph was a response to his lack of recognition as one of the principal inventors of photography, and tells the story of how he “drowned himself” due to the injustice from the French government. Today, conceptual photography has two basic usages, as a methodology or as an art form. It is very imaginative, thus often resulting in images that portray distorted realities.
It is important to note that with conceptual photography, the goal is not producing picture-perfect images, like in landscape or abstract photography. While the final piece must of course, maintain a certain level of aesthetics, its ultimate goal is to paint a picture in the viewer’s head, to make them think and develop their own interpretations.
In conceptual photography the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work. when a photographer uses a conceptual form of taking pictures, it means that all of the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair. So, conceptual photography starts with creative photography ideas.
It is good to know what you want to say or express with your photograph. You need to start thinking conceptually. If you want to create images like the ones mentioned and shown here, then you need to start using your imagination. Think about how you can twist the world around you, or finding some interesting things you can do with it.
Think about how you are going to achieve the final result that you are after. Do you have to take specific photos for it? You need to make sure when you are taking the photos that everything will work together. It should look like it really is possible.
