Fine art photography was created to express a sense of aesthetics, to communicate, or to create a way of thinking. This art was created to address aesthetic purposes rather than for practical purposes and is providing beauty and pleasure and not for commercial use. Fine art does not need to follow the rules and should just be enjoyed by the audience. It also does not need to be examined with artistic theories.
Many people believe that photography is merely using a camera to document what exactly appears in front of the photographer. Well, it could be true, but only referring to a category of photo-journalism, which is frequently found in publications that need purist photos to exactly record the scene at a precise moment in time. Though, when people are asked about fine art photography, they have no clear idea. Here, we try to take a closer look at fine art photography, its definition, and its usage in today’s world.
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Fine Art Photography History
Photography has been considered an art form and a medium to record events since the 19th century. Portrait photography has considered the ancient models from sculptures and paintings as its style. However, since the 20th century, photography has turned into an innovative form of art. Photography as an art form tried to use new techniques of collage art, which merged photographs and drawings, objects, or paintings.
The rise of lithography and other printing forms provided a new climate of cultural production in photography. Alfred Stieglitz, a US-based photographer, for example, produced a haunting portrait series of Georgia O’Keeffe. This series gained a lot of public attention and turned into a milestone in the history of art photography.
In the 20th century, art photography dramatically shifted to an artistic medium explored by expressionists, surrealists, and others.
What is fine art photography?
Fine art photography typically is considered a subcategory of editorial photography and not only considers the photographer but also the photography itself. The quality of the photography as well as the intent behind each photograph matters in fine art photography.
To be more precise, fine art photography is all about what an artist sees, not about capturing what the camera sees. The artist takes advantage of a camera in fine art photography as merely a tool to create a work of art. The artist uses a camera to make an art piece to reveal their vision. The artist aims to make a statement of that vision rather than just documenting the subject before the lens.
Taking a close look at fine art photos by a famous photographer like Georgia O’Keeffe, makes us agree that a fine art photograph goes beyond the literal representation of a scene or subject. Fine art photography must deeply express the feelings and vision of the photographer and the photo created by an artist, not just the image recorded by a camera. It should be clearly understood that fine art photography involves the individual expression of the artists with an original, deliberate creation with every personal aspect of making the photograph in the field and the photographer’s post-processing digital studio.
The main characteristics to define fine art photography could be as follows:
- Captures the vision of an artist in photographic form
- Does not simply reflect reality
- Classification is to some extent subjective
How fine art photography differs from other photography
Some experts, and even those who own a camera, debate whether or not photography is an art form. For all serious photographers and filmmakers, the answer to the debate is yes. However, considering photography as an art form does not necessarily mean that every single photograph shot is automatically a piece of art.
The world today sees both artistic and non-artistic photography simultaneously. While photography as a profession requires the photograph to make use of certain equipment, non-artistic photographs rarely use devices such as subtext, metaphor, or juxtaposition, all of which are Fineoften applied in fine art photographs.
Taking a more professional look at photography, the most important factor to distinguish fine art photography from others is the purpose and intent of a photograph. The fin art photographer uses photography intentionally as an artistic medium to convey an idea, emotion, or message in their work. It should be said that the difference between a fine art photograph and something like a piece of photojournalism or a selfie is that a fine art photographer depicts something beyond the plain reality around us. The fine art artist shares their vision of what they see through lenses. Comparing it to other forms of photography which merely document real life, it needs to be stated that fine art photography creates something new using a camera.
What is necessary with a fine art photographer?
- Artist’s Vision: For a photo to become a fine art, the artist has to have a vision of their work and what it is going to look like.
- An Idea: Fine art is about the idea, a message, or emotion that artist has and want to have conveyed in their work. That idea or message may be something already known or ignored, a single word such as peace, or it may be a whole statement, like urban life. The idea comes like a hypothesis.
- Technique: Most artists prefer to demonstrate their vision and ideas with consistency. Each artist uses the same medium and techniques at work which results in similarities in their photos.
- Body of Work: Artists show their ideas, subjects, and techniques in their photo collections or body of work. Images shown in a gallery are dominantly uniformed in many aspects.
- Artist Statement: Every fine art piece as a photograph likely comes with an artist statement which is a short explanation about the work, why, and how it was captured. It will help viewers figure out the artist’s intentions and attempts.
How to be a fine art photographer?
- Collect all your ideas together
- Find a proper topic
- Figure out the right subject for your photos
- Working out your strategies
- Creating your body of work
- Write that artist statement
Top 10 fine art photographers
- Josefine Hoestermann
- Sonya Khegay
- Willemijn Louws
- Luke Sharratt
- Masha Sardari
- Gina Vasquez
- Lotus Carroll
- Ana Lora
- Ruby James
- Eduardo Acierno
Post-Processing in Fine art photography
Fine art photographers use post-processing tools like Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom to improve and elevate their photographs. Fine art photography is judged by the beauty and meaning it conveys, both of the measures seem to be subjective Therefore, art photography feels no need to adhere to the rules of photography, rather the intent of a photo changes based on exposure, light, and composition. Fine art photographers, then, feel free to use abstract or surreal subjects and edit creatively, breaking composition rules.
A final word
The fine art photograph should be all about the artist, and what they are passionate about. Knowing the vision, the subject, and the way to create fine artwork, the photographer’s statement should come easily to present a vision or a massage using a fine art photography