It is true; I am at times jealous of the painter. Is it their craft, their skill, their output, their ability to capture life? I do believe it is their ability to capture that I am jealous of. Understand I know that we both have a craft and a skill. We both produce wonderful works of art and we have control over the final product, but it is the capture that amazes me. Both the photographer and the painter start out in the same way. We observe life until we see what it is we want to capture. The photographer peers thru the lens until the shutter is activated with a push. CLICK… the image is captured by the camera. That is the key here, by the camera. Yes, it is true that as a photographer one can take the image and apply so many changes through film processes and through software. I do not for a moment doubt the artistic dream the photographer has. I do not for a moment dismiss the craft and skill it takes to create these dreams by applying any number of techniques. Yet in the end we are working with an image that was captured not by our minds but by the camera itself. The painter on the other hand captures the image in their mind and can dream a reality before a single technique is applied to produce that final print. Indeed what the photographer captures is reality but what the painter dreams becomes reality.
I am a photographer not a painter and it is true at times I am jealous of the painter but more often I wonder to myself what is it that makes the painter jealous of me?
2 comments
lori m. kuhn robinson
August 22, 2011 at 6:57 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Media is put on supports, like canvas or paper- from tools like brushes and cameras- it is all from the mind, heart, body of the maker. The arts have no difference other than media difference is my thought on it.
Maliska
August 23, 2011 at 6:11 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Thank you Lori for your comment. Yes, I completely agree with you. The true wonder is to be able to see the art in everything around us and the artist is all of us.