Art, Craft or Both?

Begin with sight, which is filtered through memory, and the resulting visual recollection is at best always an impressionistic interpretation of reality. For instance, when I think of the Golden Gate Bridge, my dominant visual memory/sense/response is "fog" - which funny enough isn't actually part of the "bridge-ness" of the Golden Gate. Ahh, impressionism. Or perhaps ADHD. Olivia will know.

Photography, as a great art, has the ability to capture impressionist moments in a tableau that was and is always there for anybody to see in precisely the same way - meaning that the same brute elements are simply there. But the photographer's art comes from composing those brute elements - rather like mathematical primitives - into a composition that accentuates some elements and minimizes others. We get the photographer's impression of the physical panorama. It's a magical thing.

And don't get me started about the technical aspects of lenses, sensors, film, and finally printing paper. Oh, it's like catnip. Suffice it to say, that the technical prowess required to take a GREAT picture "in camera" is not an inconsequential skill to be dismissed lightly.

And on top of all THAT, these days there are so many literally fantastic manipulations to be done post-production with a digital photo. I used to think that my photography major was cool, back when we shot B&W film and printed on really expensive paper. But none of that caveman technology compares to my Adobe Creative Suite and what I can do with my Nikon D200. I'm still very good friends with my college photography professor - who knows a fraud, photographic or otherwise, when he sees one - and we enjoy those ridiculously clichéd moments together when the conversation turns to "How did we ever DO ANYTHING with that old technology..."

Edvard Munch was a nu-nu.
 
Let's start out with simplicity. All passengers on board The Sepia Train: Anyone think photography is craft and not art?
 
I don't see any hands.

Aaeeeells: Great to hear from you! How are things in the new business?

Photography is an art. And speaking of art, you people need to fire your web design company because jpeterman.com looks awful. Seriously, fire them.

Hey Stoney ~ have you been to the Paine Art Center to see the George Eastman Photographic exhibit yet? http://www.thepaine.org/exhibitions/index.html
 
I am hoping to get there to see it myself before it leaves in October, The Paine Gardens has had some Great Exhibits in these last few years.
 
As for my favorite Photographer whom I consider an artist is Lee Miller. She was a pioneer in many many ways, the only Female Photag to be in the WWII combat fields, a Muse for Man Ray & Picasso, inventor of Egyptian Sand Sking (until she saw an Asp in the dune.)  Her work Pre WWII & during WWII is very interesting.      

Rings, your going to force me into going over to the Eastman House, since I drive by it enough.  I live here 10 years and have only been on the grounds (which are pretty spectacular).  It takes up just about a block.
A roommate in college refered to Kodak as the big yellow brother, his father being one of the inventors of the carosel slide projector.  Though its seeing a bit a hard time, Kodak Park still takes up a good part of the city.
 
As far as art or not, thats a good subjective question I may try with more sleep.

Photography is as valid an art form as any other.
There are great photographers, whose eye for form, line, construction and composition are as worthy as any other artists skills. Arguing over medium is pointlessly small minded. Surely art is *the* subjective experience.
Are cave paintings art? They use pigment applied by hand (usually literally) or are they writing? Do they stir the emotions aesthetically, or via a deeper, more fundamental connection? What about Hirst's often-discussed pickled animals? Is the art in nature's construction?
Between cave painting and modern art has the technology of creating the image created the art form? Is linseed oil and canvas the technological progression that has made pictoral expression art? Is photography, therefore any different? What about digital photgraphy? Photomanipulation can now easily take an image to heaven or hell by software's caress. Who can truly say that photography is not art in the digital age?

I see a Venn diagram forming in my mind's eye.... One circle is photograph; the other is 'art'.  they are both very blurry (astigmatism combined with myopia).  Do they ovelap?  I can't quite see.... maybe my digital camera can record the pesky Venn diagram and I can later 'blow it up'.  Hmmm... and if I don't like what I see, there is... (blare of trumpets):  PHOTOSHOP.  Who wudda thought that Photoshop could resolve problems of logic!

this is a decision to be made in the eyes of the beholder.  from both my lense everything is art.  if one chooses to make a living from it, then it's their craft.  who's smile, captured in a moment of joy, can't be described as the craftsmanship of the soul?
 

Getting ready to go to the office, so not a whole lot of time to write an opinion, but photography is both art and not art, depending on the usage. While snapshots of one's grandmother's 90th birthday may only be considered a document of an important event, with the right lighting, framing, focus, and depth of field, the Getty Institute may come calling.        Just some thoughts now until a fuller post later thise evening. Have a great day everybody!

I have a former partner who maintains that the only "true professions" are medicine & law.  Everything else, according to him, is (just) a trade.  I have trouble getting excited about his thesis for the same reason I have trouble getting fired up to wade into an analysis of today's proposal.  Those who stand out in whatever it is that they do make everybody else look like amateurs.  I am one of those people who would rather have a taste of perfection instead of a plethora of impostors.  It is a strategy that works well in focusing in on who are your true friends, and who are {merely} acquaintances.  It works well in deciding what to bring with you to read on holiday.  And it works well in selecting a fine cognac...

  rings90,

Thank you for mentioning The Paine. Having driven past a dozen times in this incomplete week alone, it had not occurred to me to go in but we will.

Somebody, by now, would have figured how to capture an image of the Baltimore Orioles, often two at a time, enjoying grape jelly not four feet from my eyes but if you are me, it is just a mental one to hold until they come again.

There are two mating pairs eating and carrying globs to waiting young. Hundreds of visits daily and at this moment, one of the kids is trying for himself. Soon, they will be gone.

Purple finches dine here as well and grackles make a large, black, threatening fuss but rarely eat when they get the chance... bullies.

junkyard Dog,

True friends are the ones who show up wearing gloves and driving a pick-up on the morning that you move.

 

In my hands photography is barely a craft, but...............there are some beautiful photographs that can take my breath away:  art.

"True friends are the ones who show up wearing gloves and driving a pick-up on the morning that you move."
 
amen!

OFF TOPIC, but MIGHT AS WELL SAY IT HERE:          Two and a half years ago, roughly, the people of SC elected a healthy young father of four to be governor. He was believed to have independent financial means, demonstrated to be fiscally conservative, and observed to be, well, a little bit on the geeky side.  Since then, we have found out he is a bit of a poet, or at least a romantic. We also know he is not very good at editing on the fly. And, before we learned any of that, we watched the legislature override every one of his vetoes. That was about a week after the State Supreme Court explained to him that he had to accept the Federal Stimulus money he wanted to leave in Washington. Just for the sake of clarity, it was not ALL of the stimuluis money- only a few hundred million, well under 5% of the state budget.  Before the Famous Non Hike, SC's governor had six months yawning before  him with nothing much to do. The legislature had adjourned until January. Ther might be some vacancies on boards or commissions to fill, doubtless, there would be some festivals to open, and there is always a small chance that a hurricane evacuation might be needed. Otherwise, it's sit back and wait for the Governor's (Christmas) Carolighting.          Of course, that has changed. Now he has to go on his own version of Oprah, spilling his guts and handing fresh ammunition to various  enemies, righteous or just self-righteous.  And, you know, it may be a change from sitting around the mansion waiting for some emergency.  But chances are, a guy with an MBA from the Darden School at UVa can manage it without taking his hand off the TV remote.       So, why do so many people want him to resign? Is it because they do not know we have an immature showboat lieutenant governor who hasn't progressed past the stage of playing with gadgets and driving too fast?  Is it just because they like the squealy sound he makes when they poke at him with sticks? Or is it because so many of them either live somewhere else or don't really care who the governor is, anyway?        I  really can't say how it would be to be married for nearly 20 years to anybody, much less to someone who is clearly as, um strong willed as thre First Lady of SC. But I am pretty sure the governor can get his Hell-catching accomplished outside  of the summer hours his office requires. And, you know what?  If he finds himself divorced, he may well be able to manage to do his job, just as thousands of other South Carolinians do.  The same is true if he finds himself married but miserable.  A lot of people figured he had made his own bed anbd needed to lie in it for a while, but now it is clear that some folks figure he didn't do the proper job- they want to set it on fire and throw a bunch of broken glass in there, too AND THEN MAKE HIM LIE IN IT WHILE THE CAMERAS ARE ROLLING.     As I started out by saying, this is completely off topic, but my mind remains curious: Having read what I have just written, why can't we just go back to ignoring the guy?

Sorry for the typos- it's hard to work a computer out here on the Appalachian trail.

My variation on that one, cuukoo is "Friends will help you move. A true friend will help you move a body."

w.t. since you brought it up........my thoughts go not to the adults(?), but to those of the children.  the reptillians that pursue and persist in their sick inhumane interest of adult affairs, should find a cold corner and move about there, finding insects to digest instead of small children, who have no choices.

reptillian press coverage is a damaged black negative on the impressionistic pallet of the universe, that should never leave a dark room.  pin holes do exist though.

j.i.
 
amen! amen! (soft sepia toned)

I am sad to see George Hurrell's name absent from the poll.  The great Hollywood photographer (who did his own touch-ups) inspired the trust of his subjects and captured moods that were truly ethereal from flesh and blood beings.  If Munch wants to see photography transported to Heaven or Hell, he should look at the Heavenly images generated by Hurrell.  The man removed Joan Crawford's freckles with deep shadows, demonstrated why he believed William Powell (in rare casual dress) was "the most impeccably groomed man alive), and turned the rather motherly Norma Shearer "into a sex pot" at her own request.
 
If the notion that a photographer is limited to what is in front of his lens is to be believed, how do we explain the staggering beauty applied to such horrific subjects as the Vietnam War that Vittorio Storaro produced in his cinematography for Apocalypse Now.  Speaking of moving images and the art of cinematography, Chris Menges depiction of the Amazonian jungle in The Mission certainly elevates its setting beyond its own glory.
 
Photography is not only both an art and a craft, it is a science.

Photography IS art, in the hands of someone other than me.  Next topic?
 
Junkyard Dog:  A friend of mine, also an attorney, once observed that most, if not all jobs, involved a level of repetition to the degree that even educated professionals such as your colleague were, for all intents and purposes, simply putting on a tire or filling a pothole or washing a window.  Sure, your friend might win the trial but I guarantee that no one is slapping him on the back and saying 'way to file that appeal, Frank.'
 
Now, about our governor.....the paper today has some 'professionals' guessing as to his mental state.  Some said he is a narcissist.  Aren't all politicians?

OFF TOPIC:  R.I.P. Karl Malden, one of the all-time greats.

www.colormekatie.com is great evidence that photography is art at its best! 

Mr. P doesn't limit us, and I thank him for it, so...
Photography by an artist is, without question, art, and the ability, now, to 'tweak' after the fact makes the work no less art: A painter certainly tweaks. And tweaks and tweaks. And tweaks.

As does an artist in any discipline: Sculptor; writer; composer; singer, instrumentalist and conductor who interpret that composer's art; choreographer and the dancer who brings to life his creation.... All work towards perfection. That striving is part of the beauty, the wonder, the magic of the creative process.

Far as we know, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was the sole artist never to change a note, and the compositions for which he is remembered were later ones; had he died at, say, seventeen, the several operas he composed as a child prodigy would be still in dusty trunks, like as not.

  Willie Trask,

Buck up my friend. The last famous guy from Wisconsin was Jeffrey Dahmer.

Just a little perspective is all...

Georgia,

Our four year-old grandson, Oliver, is a huge Mozart fan. Imagine.

Dredd, yes George Hurrell is a lovely choice. So is Jacques-Henri Lartigue. Like to hearwhat you think of his work.

Kristina,
 
Thank you so much for your perspective.  The point of view (pardon the photography pun) of a practitioner is especially valuable in a diffictult topic like art.  Please lurk no more and continue to add your insights.

Well, a subject that definately evokes passion.Art?   IMHO, a picture should,like a movie or book, tell a story; have a beginning,middle,and end.    To that end,again,IMHO, a photo is art if it does that. If it draws the viewer into the story,though the reality to each may be personal and different, to each it does indeed tell a story.   If it does not have that magic, it is merely a snapshot; a precise depiction of a moment in time, though only encompassing the field of vision encaptured.   In movies,for example, a crowd scene may actuall have only a handfull of people, but because it fills the entire frame,it denotes a massive crowd.  Back up, and take from a broader perspective, and we see in fact the smallness of said crowd.Suggested reality. And any photo could indeed be,again, that suggested reality.  If it succesfully evokes emotion,or passion, IMHO, it is art.

Welcome Kristina. I guess I disproved your notions of sophistication, eh? If so, I am grateful that  I have accomplished something good. We are pleased and fortunate to have the benefit of your active presence.  Please post some photos for us, too.                                                               Mrs. DAHMER: I don't like your friends, Jeffrey.                                                                             JD.: That's OK, Mom, just eat the vegetables, then.

  Kristina,

"I feel a bit intimidated. I wonder how many other readers you guys have...?"

The answer is, of course, forty-two.

Glad you made the jump. Stick around.

DPR ~ Hurrell's contempary Clarence Bull also did some great Photos of the classic Stars. I often have to remember which Studio a star was under contract to so I can indentify the  photo as a Hurrell or a Bull.  Both of those Photographers work today is considered Art by many many people of all social classes.
 
Kristina ~ Sophisticated?... ME, some of MY posts?... You flatter me ~ Sophistication is all in the perspective ~ please do not feel that anything you may post and want to post will be thought be us to be ignorant. We all are here to learn & to share daily.  ( that goes for the rest of you lurkers also!!!!)  
 
My rules when it comes to the PE are
#1 I don't learn if I don't ask any questions  
#2 I don't learn unless people actually post
#3 Read Daily Learn Daily Ask a question Daily.
 
Please just close your eyes & just jump onto the Sepia Train (We promise it won't hurt)  ~ We LOVE new people & we particularly LOVE new ideas & Insights.... Welcome... 
    
 

Photos as art?
 
Just check out the ones we post in the sidebar.
 
Some are pedestrian, some are truly artfully beautiful.
 
The thing about them is we love to look at them and learn about each other.
 
Beauty IS in the eye of the beholder and so is art.
 
 

Stoney:   "Friends"  are  those  willing  to  post  your  bond  when  you  screw  up.   "Best  friends,"  however,  form  a  more  select  inner  circle.  They  will  be  there  with  you  in  the  holding  cell, rubbing  their  bloodshot  eyes,  and  asking  you  "Hey,  do  you  even    remember  what  that  bar fight  was  all  about?"  lol 
One  more  brief  thought.....

well, I'm certainly one of those lurkers!

I watch and read, most of the time your discussions, I feel I have little to offer, maybe it's the subjects, most of them I do not understand.

photography however, well ...

I am, I do and sometimes, maybe one out of eighty, I think is art. There are many people who have looked at my work, stopped, had some emotion and had a comment to share, sometimes people want and need a title, makes me smile ...

Shandonista:    Cool  name,  nice  play  on  words.  You  fascinate  me, wondering  what  international  intrigue  you are/were up to...lol.    And  politicians?  Narcisistic  personality  disorder =  an  individual  who  thinks  that  the  world  revolves  around  him,  not  the  other  way  around.    But  no, some  politicians  are  not  narcissistic.  There  are  many, many  well-documented  forms  of  mental  disease  or  defect  showing  their  ugly  heads  in  epidemic  numbers  in  the  political  community.  Some,  however,  remain  pure of  heart.....You  can't  fix  stupid.

Junkyard;  I'm always trying to be up to something. 

I really know nothing about photography. But I have gotten really good at surrounding myself with people who have the talents I don't. So that's something.

Two of the four women who are now a part of our new site are amazing photogs. They both pop in here from time to time, and are incredible writers, too.

When we launched our site, I asked each of the girls to write advice to themselves, from their six-year-old self. The site's main goal is to nurture the part of every woman that she forgets about as she grows and takes on new roles.

Leigh, one of our photogs and creative writers wrote these tips:

"Don't go places without wearing pockets. Treasures are everywhere and you only have two hands and one mouth.

Anything boys can do, you can too. Prolly better.

Laughing is THE best. Laughing should be a daily dose thing like water, sugar and food.

Shut your eyes 5 times a day, take a deep breath and snap a mental picture. You can replay them at night if you can sleep or if you're grounded.

When picking up snakes, don't grab 'em where they can bite you.

Oh, and hide candy in your pockets jus in case you do get grounded.

Chocolate melted in the sun is the finest chocolate. Just don't step in it! And melted in your pocket isn't good.

When grown ups look sad, hugging them helps. Or see if you can offer to fold clothes or get the mail while they happy up.

Be nice to your friends. Or they won't be your friends. And it's really hard to play kickball all by yourself."

I loved them all, but the bit about the snapshots really spoke to me about how she was born to take pictures. She and Morgan are both that way. Get them together with their cameras, and know this, you WILL be climbing a tree in a ridiculously short skirt or holding lying down in the middle of an interstate while one of them stops traffic. No shot is out of their reach. Evahhhhh. Total hooligans. They inspire me.

Of course I have to plug their work. Sorry. Worth a peek, though.

Leigh: http://www.fleurdeleighphotography.com/

Morg: http://www.modernmarriedmomma.com/

SO good to see all of you.

MackDaddy,
I got your letter. As always, so thoughtful. And you were even more lovely and charming in person than I'd imagined. So good to finally meet you.

Mr. and Mrs Peterman,
Again, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Awesome Lisa and Betsy,
(Still grinning, and pinky swears forbid me to say more.) SUCH a great night out. Morgan recovered just in time for me to totally take her down for the count, live, Thursday night. Champagne+Live UStream=not great for our personal brands. Cringe. Unfortunately, we got stellar traffic that night, too. Double cringe. Luckily, the beautiful job on the dress distracted from the bloodshot eyes. WIN.

JD and JS,
Both very cool offices, but we both know reptiles win.

DPR! You're back. Or maybe you have been? And your daughter looks very grown up and lovely. I smiled when I saw you welcoming Kristina, as I remembered how welcoming you were to me. They need that here.

Kristina,
Welcome!

Rings, Nachista, Olivia, Shandonista,
What up, women?

Trask,
(Just shaking my head will suffice here.) Although I chuckled a bit yesterday when Stoney published two pages of information (yes, Stoney, I saw that, along with your very dryly witty response to it, which began with "If I had it to do over . . ."), and thought, hey, even TRASK hasn't done THAT! Nobody will ever complain about your faulty links again.

Stoney,
Thanks for standing my up again today. Good thing I have a healthy ego.

Michael,
So glad to hear you're writing is soaring this summer.

PeterLake,
How's the yard?

Kindlee,
I have a pie recipe for you that I got while in Lexington. It's bourbon pecan pie. It made me think of you.

John_DB,
Had I known you still popped in here from time to time, I would never have made the crack on Tuesday about sex, tennis and British men. I'm sure that doesn't apply to Brits from Manchester. Get it. MANchester? I'm actually laughing out loud at that one. And now, the ball is in your court, sir, so feel free to slander me as well.

For all who do not know, John_DB is an incredible supporter of the LookingGlass ventures and a brilliant tech guy, in areas so techy, I'm unable to disclose specifics on them, out of total ignorance on the subject. Also, as you can see from his post above, he's no slouch in the words department.

(Isles)
And on that note (good GAWD, wrap it up, woman!), our own Jonathan Isles came to the LGL girls' rescue the other night, as he saw my SOS signals on Twitter regarding the above mentioned techy things about which I am wholly ignorant, tapped into our site, and did a bit of this and that, until everything was as it should be. Ahhhh.

All,
I'm rarely here and sad about that, but it's great to see so many new faces. Feel free to pop me a note here at the site anytime.

Off for a bike ride. Good to see all your mugs.

Ive

Hey, Ive (waves)
 
Ok, on to business.
 
What is art?  And why do I feel like a snooty prat just for asking that?
 
Is art the conveyance of emotion?  If yes, then photography is art.
 
Is art a shift in perspective, from your own to the artists?  If yes, then photography is art.
 
Is art creation?  If yes, then I don't know if photography is art or not.  When someone like Annie Liebovitz takes a portrait, she has very much created an image, a situation to be recorded.  But that raises the question, is portraiture art?  It fails the first two questions since it isn't the artist's emotion that is being shared, and the perspective really doesn't change much. 
 
Then again, across the room from me is a mixed-media (photo and oils) image of a set of railroad tracks that are spreading beyond the confines of the photo, and it is very definitely art.  Expensive, too, judging by the price tag.

Since I do some teaching online, and I'm an ebay aficianado, and I read lots of current medical news online, and I write or update my lectures all the time, I always have the computer up and simmering. So, I roll over to Comcast maybe every couple of hours and see if anything good's come in. And nobody's emailed me, so I have to keep working instead of having a lovely distraction. I hate it when that happens *laughing*. But, HELLO-the wee light comes on...I can babble at the Eye! Just in the nickle and dime of time. So, I make change!

I'm always trying to reclaim a bit of the past or find something tiny and cool on ebay when I have a minute. A lady actually just now had my J Peterman black velvet dress of dreams and obsessions that I've written about on the Eye before!!! I never thought I'd see another one, not ever again. It was my size and all, so fabulous, but too much, so I had to be a big girl and let it go this morning. Anyroad, where would I wear it? Hell, I'd wear it to hoover the house. Maybe she'll list it again for less. Maybe I'll get a lawyer's letter that a rich and unknown relative has died and left me a liquor store. Or something lol...

After years of staying out of the sun, I decided this year I was going to lay out on my deck a little and get a bit of colour. I have some nice short dresses for summer, and pasty legs are not a good look. I'm reluctant to dye the poor spindly things orange with a fake tan, so I wanted one of those old aluminium tubing folding chaise lounges with coloured webbing that we all had in the sixties-all of us who were alive then, anyroad...I figured Target or Academy Sports or Lowe's would have them, but NOOOOOOOO. Only fancy ones for sixty or eighty or wayyyy more dinero have they now. So of course I found MANY on ebay, but they were really proud of them too. I was talking to my electrologist (Sounds cool, huh? I go see him occasionally to zap the odd monster black hair that is where it shouldn't be. Tiny branding irons...EEEK!), and he mentioned Walgreens, and sure enough, they had them, or near enough. So now I'll be all bronzed and irresistibly gorgeous in short order...riiiiiight. I usually get a farmer's tan from mowing and garden work, but this year I'm wearing my bikini top and Daisy Dukes to mow, and maybe it'll even up. Or maybe I won't next time, whimsical sprite that I am, although it was amusing watching the cars slow down as they passed me sweating away in the front garden. Either it was guys checking to see if I was worth an ogle (presumably not), or women astonished at my brazen foolishness and harlotry (this is the BUCKLE of the Bible Belt, you will note). Perhaps they expected melanomas to bloom as they watched me sin away there. I'm pretty sure the Cherokee genes are protecting me so far. My dermatologist is ok with my skin, and he goes over me like my monkey husband in a fever dream, sorting through my hair and back and feet and whatnot, which is fine except he's pretty cute, and maintaining the detachment of a nun, or whatever kind of female who might be able to frostily endure such a thorough professional groping, can be difficult. It sounds like I have an entourage of physicians to rival some wayward celebrity...

Anyroad, where was I? Ah, yes. So, I haven't been the diligent Eyester of late, nor a brisk correspondent, but when I observe the stack of essay tests I have to grade for Microbiology a cold chill skitters down my spine. Best to dive in, I suppose. I'd rather prattle on, or watch a movie, or surf the web, or plant my geraniums.

Oh, yes-the topic...photography is clearly an art, and if you need examples, just see our JohnPeterLake's gallery in one of the latter carriages of the Sepia Train. Stroll, take your time, for as we say in poor priest-ridden Ireland, 'when god made time, she made plenty of it, sure'.

I have been sorely remiss in the welcome department, but it suffices to say that I always welcome new friends, literati, logophiles, fun people, and especially the weird. We are one, us we are...
 
Ahh-weird, as in eccentric? Uh-oh, there she goes, off on a tangent. If I had a horse, that's what I'd name her-Tangent.
Michael asked me a question after one of my posted pics, and he shall have his answer, for I am in performance mode upon the nonce. The question, you prompt...something anatomical, intimate-how dare he? Well, I started it...one of my parts in the Vagina Monologues performance back in March led to a picture that is less disagreeable than most of mine, so I posted it, since I was odd and silly and not as awkward as usual. I was delivering my lines, discussing the Vagina Happy Fact, which was actually a Clitoral Happy Fact, and that was the photo caption (WOW, almost ON TOPIC!), and the understandable male curiousity brought about the query, no doubt.
Is this the LONGEST lead-in, or what? He wanted to know what the fact was, so here it is...
 
The clitoris is pure in purpose. It is the only organ in the body evolved purely for pleasure. The clitoris is simply a bundle of nerves: 8000 nerve fibers, to be precise. That's a higher concentration of nerve fibers than is found anywhere else in the male or female body, including the fingertips, lips, and tongue, and it is twice, Twice...TWICE the number to be found in the penis.
Who needs a hand gun when you've got a semi-automatic?
 
I delivered this in a dry and didactic manner at first, getting a bit more animated as I went along. The final line was accompanied by the gunman's salute Bond-style (pointing at the ceiling). At semi-automatic, I 'shot' the three groups of seats: 'Semi' (bang to the right) 'auto' (bang to the middle) 'matic' (bang the left). Then I blew on the end of my finger and sashayed back to my seat. The first performance, it was just a spontaneous thing, never did it in rehearsals. We were all astounded at the response from the audience-a HUGE roar, foot stomping, yelling, pandemonium. Jeez!
So I had to do it that way every time, which was fun and got the same reaction every night.
But, ya hadda be there, I guess...
That answer your question, Michael?

  The best photo I have ever seen was a black and white of a little seven-year old in a yellow dress, dirty knees and sweaty, grubby, curly brown hair.

She, staring into the horizon, hadn't know it was being taken.

There was just something so completely grippingly compelling about the exhausted, faraway look of her that it came to symbolize for me almost all that it had meant to live through long lazy summers in the fifties.

The fact is: I knew that kid when it was taken, knew the yellow dress as well and she was anything but what that candid shot had captured.

A whiny, loud, brash little scamp who spent summers here with her grandparents, two lovely, long-suffering seniors who must have counted the seconds until school again.

It was always a bit of a surprise to learn that her parents had remained at the same address.

There it is then, if it is possible to have frozen, for eternity, a golden moment that never existed, it must have been art.

  

Good to see Olivia is back in Fine Fettle (a small village near Cork?).... ah, it's those microbiology papers that have been keeping your mind from finer pursuits... right?

well?...hmmmm....like a flash...there ya go!  i had no idea, but don't think for one second i'm not sharing the plethra of information presented in such a wonderful format.
 
heading to the club car, with a mind full of pictures to develop......i'm sure tequila will clear it all up enough to print the piece of art.  but, i've always thought that in the art of it all, the it of it, to be that of a skilled craftsman.  "hmmmm" she say's to her self in a quite and gentle voice.......

 If you love capturing moments with a camera and then bending them to your will, to make them your vision..... or, if you appreciate the visions of others who have captured moments and shared their visions ....... well then it just doesn't matter what label you hang on it... be it art, craft, all of the above, or none of the above.  

If it stirs an emotion, preserves a memory, takes your breath away by either its beauty or its horror... it's pretty darned good.

Peace out.....

Olivia - thank you for your very kind words and for your words that create such grand pictures through the lens of the imagination.

I'm with Kristina -- I have felt totally intimidated by the level of many of your conversations.  And the fact that most of you seem to know each other and have some inside jokes!  As far as photography goes, I believe it is a craft that sometimes can turn into art.  I just finished reading Flags of Our Fathers and revisited "The Photograph" of the flagraising on Iwo Jima -- a perfect example of spontaneous art.  I have dabbled in photography at times, and I attribute most of my "accidental art" to the quality of the camera I used.