Embracing Limitations in Fine Art Photography | BW...

I don’t claim to have a definitive answer, not by far, since we are right in the middle of this change, of this redefinition what photography is. And therefore it’s hard to perceive when and if the change or any discussion has ended and to assess what the final verdict is. But I do have an opinion. A sincere opinion to contribute to a discussion that should take place, and is taking place albeit in a less concerted effort compared to art movements in other art forms, to determine what photography is, or should be. Acceptance, or non-acceptance, without polemics and discussion, is a form of ignorance and self-imposed artistic dictatorship based on the loudest voice of poorly informed influencers whose objectives are different than the objectives from serious artists: attracting viewers versus authenticity and maturity in art.

Before trying to formulate my opinion on it, let’s try and learn a bit from the history of painting, again, and how it evolved to what it is now. After all, painting as an art form existed many centuries before photography was invented. So there’s something to learn for us, photographers.

Going back to the initial limitations of what a painting should entail, a brush and pigment and a canvas, and how it later evolved to anything you can paint with, a brush or a bucket or just your hands, anything that can replace pigment, like glass, cigarette butts, gold leafs, human excrements and what not, and to anything you can paint onto like a canvas, paper, stone walls, tarmac, glass, and what have you. Anything is possible and there actually isn’t a limitation to the materials used, to call it a painting. So the main elements of the medium have changed, but what is ‘it’ that remained the same to still call it a painting? I think it is the human expression on any type of surface that can sustain that expression for a longer time, using any kind of substance that is more permanent once applied to the surface in a meaningful and intentional (the human expression) way. In other words, the medium of painting isn’t determined by its materials, nor by how it should be applied, only that it is a human expression through the use of any substance on any surface that once applied, makes for the artwork. Conclusion: the inherent limitation and challenge, that induces creativity in the art of painting is the ‘substance-to-surface’ that is more permanently.

With photography, it shouldn’t be that difficult to come to a similar conclusion in an analogous way. Don’t forget there’s a close relationship between painting and photography in the way it evolved, first separately separated by time and then simultaneously over the last 150 years and how they’re being perceived. Let’s try.

Light gives meaning to the material world, and the material world gives a purpose to light. What else do we need light for, other than to see things out of the material world?  Light would have no meaning without a material world, and a material world would be virtually nonexistent without light. The same light recorded onto a light-sensitive surface like film, or a digital sensor creates a scaled-down duplicate of a part of the material world, of just one infinitely small perspective. In photography, light is the substance with which photographers express themselves on any type of surface. This surface can be film, a sensor, something new in the future that can record light, and then transferred onto paper. Or a metal sheet, or a canvas, or a wall. It shouldn’t matter. In painting, it is the application of any sustainable substance onto any surface that makes it a painting, in photography it is the recording of light onto any surface that makes it a photograph. But that’s not all. There’s another limitation to call it a photograph that is absent in painting. And that is time. Time is the big differentiator in photography: a longer time, a shorter time, the exact timing, the right time. It’s for that reason that no 2 photographs are the same. And it’s time that dictates how light will be recorded on a light-sensitive surface to give form or no form to shapes. So here’s the inherent and, again, challenging limitation, the arena we have to stay in to truly create meaningful photographs: light to surface within a given time-frame.

photography is the recording of light onto any surface […] within a given time-frame

The substance on the surface may be altered, before and after it is applied to the surface, to the artist’s liking. The painter gives shape to an idea by letting paint create the illusion of a shape or no shape at all. The photographer gives shape to an idea by recording light within a specific time-frame in a specific way and create the reality of a shape. There’s one of the differences. And there are more.

Paint on a surface applied by the artist has no relationship with the object it represents, it doesn’t need that relationship. The object, a vase, may be completely imaginary in painting.

But an imaginary vase cannot be photographed. Because light needs to be reflected off the object to be recorded. But the light itself may be altered, just like the substance in painting, the paint may be altered.

But the relationship – the relationship of light and object and the light reflecting off of an object in photography – should not be altered in order to maintain the integrity of the inherent nature of a photograph. So one could conclude if you maintain this line of thinking, that when altering the light in photography, only the relationship between ‘thing’ on the artist’s surface and the object it represents should be respected, not the intensity of the light itself. There should only be an object and there should be light coming from that object. That is the relationship. That in painting anything is allowed as far as the artist’s imagination can conceive an idea, and that in photography everything is allowed as long as the relationship between the object that is recorded isn’t broken.

In other words: if you capture a vase, then that vase should be there, in reality, to reflect off the light so it can reach the sensor or film, and cannot be absent and added ’in post’. But you may alter the intensity of the light (and this implies also that by altering the intensity of light so much, you can even alter the perception of the direction of light if you do more drastic adjustments) just as much as you may alter the pigment on a painting. Because even though light is the very substance needed to create a photograph, the light in itself, if not purposely (re)directed via an object has no meaning in itself in the context of photography, it only has meaning within the symbiotic relationship of light-object. It is the object that reflects the light to a film plane or sensor plane that is meaningful in photography.

But if there’s a symbiotic relationship between light and objects then subsequently objects have no meaning either if there’s no light, just like light has no meaning if there are no material objects to reflect that light and make it meaningful. Why may light then be altered, but not objects? Can we still persist in saying then, that light may be altered as long as the object is there in photography if there’s this symbiotic relationship between object and light? I don’t see why not as light takes up a different place than objects in the context of photography. After all, a camera’s purpose is to direct, control and adjust light, not to adjust objects. You can adjust light through your camera and lens but you can’t change the fundamental shape of an object through your camera and lens, you can only change the perspective, but that doesn’t change its intrinsic shape. And whether you alter the light in-camera, which is never subject of debate, or alter the light in the analog or digital darkroom, shouldn’t matter. As long as the light is there. Or in other words, as long as the object that reflected the light that could be recorded on a light-sensitive surface, was there in that specific time-frame. That was the limitation.

Having said this, this is not meant as a moral judgment, nor a disqualification of those cases where objects in photos are replaced in postproduction. But I do believe that it should be clarified as it is not according to the inherent nature of photography that objects that weren’t there are there in a photograph, or vice versa, all of a sudden. Just like Uelsmann’s work received the admiration and accolades it deserved, this should also be the case in the digital age. But clarification should be prescribed as it isn’t that obvious anymore in the digital era, that photos have undergone more than just light and contrast adjustments. It is still photography albeit with photomontage.

Conclusions

A conclusion we could draw is that light-intensities may be altered, but when you remove or insert objects that weren’t there the moment light was recorded on the light-sensitive surface, you disregard the inherent limitation of photography. You go outside the arena and do something that is not entirely the same. Which is perfectly okay, but perhaps you should then call it composite-photography or photomontage for example and make it transparent what you did especially if it is not clear. I am of the opinion that when you replace objects, you’re onto new territory with new rules. That’s not less photography than working off of one (digital) negative. It’s different though and yet, still completely acceptable, as long as it is clear and that’s what Uelsmann proved with his work in the analog era and the appreciation and admiration he received for his work.

Another conclusion we could draw is that there’s not a fundamental difference between photography now in the digital age, and photography in the analog era. The most important difference is that light-sensitive surfaces made visible through chemical components have been replaced by sensors and RAW converters, but more importantly, that our options to adjust photos in post-production are much more advanced to a point that it’s not clear and unambiguous, let alone obvious anymore, that more drastic adjustments than merely adjusting light and contrast have taken place. There’s a beauty to that type of photography as well, as there is to so many other types of art where the medium of photography is only used as one of the many elements to create art.

Create what you want with your camera as a medium, and call it whatever you want, and then it’s perfectly fine to operate within the limitations of that (new) medium or art form. But I believe clarity should be provided to maintain the integrity of the chosen art form and of the artist. This is even more urgent when we award photographers in competitions where leveling a playing field is important where the craftsmanship, and not just creativity, plays an equally important role in the valuation of an image. Having limitations imposed by the medium you chose in art is not equal to an artistic limitation. It’s limitations that drive creativity. Embracing limitations not only drives art forward but also creates more acceptance.