Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Painting versus Photography


Even though photography and painting (or sculpting) have a lot in common with respect to the perceptive mind of the artist, I believe each of the two art forms has a different ideal or purpose.
Photographers capture the beauty of one moment in time, even when this moment depicts a subject in motion. A painter, who´s work takes a few hours to do, witnesses the subject matter over a longer period of time, and interprets a personal impression of it. This impression should be charged with the painter´s emotions and will give not only a more or less accurate account of the scene, depending on the style, but also a glimpse of the artist´s character.
For me painting in a realistic way does not mean trying to compete with what a a photographer can do, that would be a waste of time, as the camera can deliver so much more precision.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

The statement on photography is note quite right. I may be nitpicking but here it is. The statement that we photographers capture one moment in time is questionable! It really depends on the camera's shutter. On a single lens reflex or a digital single lens reflex the shutter is what is called a focal plane shutter. It works by the movement in one direction (either up and down or from side to side) of two metal (or cloth) curtains with a slit in between. It is the slit that makes the above statement beautifully wrong. As the curtain moves from one side to another (exposing the film or sensor, a slit at a time) the result is a photograph in which the upper part of the photograph (when the shutter is and up and down one) is slightly earlier in time than the lower part. In a side to side the shutter one person's (if it is a portrait) side of the face will be "younger" than the other. While brief, a portrait taken by the above cameras are rally a study in time, albeit a brief one. But certainly not one.

Alex Waterhouse-Hayward

sandy said...

Great painting, and so serene feeling with the colors you used.

Interesting to read you too.

Ilse T.Hable said...

Alex, that´s interesting, once again, I learned something from you!

Sekhar said...

I think the 'Painting' wins here. 'Cause you cant get all the interesting elements in a single frame in 'Photography'. Where as in painting you can create all the elements you love.

But being an amateur photographer I think photography has its own advantages that painting can never have :)