TITLE: Are Photographers Held to a Higher Standard Than Visual Artists?
ABSTRACT: When a photographer captures the image of an object as a picture, the resulting photograph presents the illusion of truthfulness. The photographer is often questioned as to how accurately the photograph represents the object.
Yet when an artist creates a visual art (painting, drawing, sculpture) resulting in a picture, the result is considered to represent the artist's expression of their skill or imagination. No question of its accuracy is raised.
There are many art and photography genres, but they are not treated equally. The photographer must adhere to ethics in nature photography, for example. If an artist captures a bird in flight, they are not questioned as to where the bird was located and how it was treated, was it in the wild or in a conservatory. The photographer might be asked if the photograph is the result of captive animals that are placed in natural-looking settings, or perhaps was baited to come to the setting. Their images can also be eliminated from contests if the animal actions are perceived to be staged in some way manipulated.
The photographer can also be an artist. They can proclaim that they are a performing the actions of a visual artist when they use photography as a medium in expressing their imagination.
Gundars will show multiple examples of photographs that contain questions of truthfulness vs art, and engage us in a discussion of how photographers are often put on the spot to defend their images, and how we as photographers may respond to questions that are raised.
Here is the Zoom link to the August meeting, described below.
https://zoom.us/j/93763270306?pwd=ZFhzRnBid21jUUlYdWhxVnEycUNFZz09
Meeting ID: 937 6327 0306 Passcode: 7NEZMw