Photography

What make a photography fine art? We had similar discuss at my modern art class the other day. As Clive Bell said that it is the “significant form. In each, lines and colors combined in a particular way, certain forms and relations of forms, stir our aesthetic emotions.” When I came across Henry Emerson’s Crusoe's Island, River Granta (1887), it provoked such aesthetic emotion. The nakedness of the branches should be reflecting the harshness of the winter. However we don’t feel it because the branches constructed such organic lines that intersecting and woven together gives a sense of energy, the energy of life. The color of this photo is back and white, yet because the way Emerson process the print, the whole picture looks yellowish, which make it feel warm instead of cold and harsh. Moreover, Emerson plays on the negative and the positive in an interesting way. Usually, the lighter part is the content and the darker part is the background or negative. However, it’s the opposite in this photo. The lighter part becomes the negative and the darker part becomes the positive. The content, branches and tree, should be the focus point in this photo. The sky and the still water should be the secondary matter in this photo. However, Emerson turns that concept around and brings out the sky and still water. It may not seem that way at the first glance. At the first peek, we know it’s nature/ landscape and we know it’s about tree and branches. As we observe further, we realized that the tree and branches become the silhouette and the shadow on the still water feel more like the real things. The shadow become the continuation of the branches, and we see again the power of nature, the power of live which is a continuity. Photography become a form of art begin by the early 20th century, 1900, which is the era of modern art. Modern art is the era that artist are examining the self and against the authority/traditional art. Often, artists are asked what art is and what makes an art. An idea is very popular: it is a art because I, the artist, say so or choose so or at least because the artist put “that” into the content of calling it art. So in a way, if you are smart in putting whatever in content and you can get away with it. Than you can be call an artist. Shocking!