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02/11/2018 08:05:05 AM · #1
I know we've had these discussions many times before -- but I'm looking for guidance yet again.

Of course I've left the challenge until the last day. So when searching through my photos, I'm getting confused.

I still love the nature photos the best, so I started looking through those. Yet, again, I find myself thinking many are artistic, and then realizing that, no... I don't think they are.

Can a photo of a bug or a bird be artistic? If so, what makes it artistic?

The simple answer seemed to be beauty -- but that gives it an artistic air at first glance, but doesn't make it artistic, IMO. Then I thought details -- but again, that gives it a wow factor, because we usually don't get to see that very easily, but not artistic.

Is it a story? I adored this photo, but I think it was for the laugh, does it make it art?

These are two of my favorite photos art-wise:



One almost passed for art, one didn't.

So what do I look for when searching the archives? I think beauty, story, something that makes you wonder. I started thinking just go for blurry wildlife and I may get close, and that just seemed wrong. So that's why I started this.

So the question is: what do you look for? What do you have in mind when searching for your art?
02/11/2018 08:37:59 AM · #2
Sorry I don't know the answer either but guess looking at the previous challenge may help in knowing what the voters have scored highest for art - not that this necessarily is any indication to be concerned about:)

Art of 2016
02/11/2018 09:14:08 AM · #3
Just go with the image you like. No way you can tell whether the viewer/voter will consider it art or not.
When you see the 4th place (see image), I don't consider it art. I think it's a great image, love it, but not in the ART category. And an image I consider to be art (see 2nd image) is only ending 29th.

4th place

29th place

To be honest, after 6 years DPC, I still find it hard to 'know' what the voters will consider DMC or not or will like or not, so at the end I only enter what I consider is suitable for the challenge and what I like.
02/11/2018 09:24:13 AM · #4
For me, I think some key phrases might be: thought provoking; unconventional; eclectic; considered.

I also tend to choose images that have been very intentional, conceived. I would shun the accidental. I’d certainly shun the superficial.

I think there should be some clear water between the regular high fidelity conventional aesthetic of the Free Study and something that might instead provoke.

But what do I know? Mine is certainly a prejudiced view.
02/11/2018 10:21:37 AM · #5
Just don't think about how the photo will do and only think about how you feel about it, if you really love a picture and it moves you, then that's art for you.
I found this one very artistic: but that's me and someone else might say it's not art. YOU are the answer to art.
02/11/2018 11:17:14 AM · #6
I'm not looking to find out what will do well, in this case I'm truly curious what YOU look for when searching for your own art entry. I know what I think is artistic, but I'm looking to expand my horizons each time.
02/11/2018 11:24:28 AM · #7
I just look for something that'll poke some bees.
02/11/2018 11:46:07 AM · #8
Originally posted by vawendy:

I'm not looking to find out what will do well, in this case I'm truly curious what YOU look for when searching for your own art entry. I know what I think is artistic, but I'm looking to expand my horizons each time.


Sorry, yes I know you know. I was being lazy and responding in light of this and the other thread.
02/11/2018 12:17:34 PM · #9
Originally posted by Paul:

Originally posted by vawendy:

I'm not looking to find out what will do well, in this case I'm truly curious what YOU look for when searching for your own art entry. I know what I think is artistic, but I'm looking to expand my horizons each time.


Sorry, yes I know you know. I was being lazy and responding in light of this and the other thread.


?? Your original response was exactly the type I was looking for!
02/11/2018 12:20:40 PM · #10
Originally posted by vawendy:

I'm not looking to find out what will do well, in this case I'm truly curious what YOU look for when searching for your own art entry. I know what I think is artistic, but I'm looking to expand my horizons each time.


I don’t look for anything or at least I convince my self that. I just choose a photo that feels good to me, maybe it’s because of how I felt when I took the shot or maybe it’s because of the particular state of mind I’m in at the moment I’m looking for it, who knows but I honestly hope I’m looking for it for its own sake and not as a means to anything else.
02/11/2018 01:31:51 PM · #11
Whoot!! Luckily I've gone through all of my photos that I took last year, and there are only about 10 that are artistic!!

Sweet!

02/11/2018 01:31:51 PM · #12
Whoot!! Luckily I've gone through all of my photos that I took last year, and there are only about 10 that are artistic!!

Sweet!

02/11/2018 02:10:15 PM · #13
What do I look for? When I look thru my own work? I wait for the feeling of ahhhhhh! this is almost perfect!

What do I look for in the work of others? I want to sense the presence of the photographer, the conscious, decision-making, perfection-seeking, obsessed mind. A few DPC members do this for me, jmritz is one of them


Wendy you're definitely a storyteller. One thing may help in deciding what to go for--you could pick one of the art genres, like chiaroscuro


or abstract.


I love these pre-voting discussions. Wish we had more. FYI I am not entering this challenge, so my comments here should not be taken as me attempting to control or influence either the entrants or the voters to my expectations.
02/11/2018 02:15:22 PM · #14
Originally posted by pixelpig:

I love these pre-voting discussions. Wish we had more.

I wish we had more post-voting discussions, when we could talk about actual pictures and opinions rather than hypotheticals ...
02/11/2018 02:24:35 PM · #15
Originally posted by GeneralE:

Originally posted by pixelpig:

I love these pre-voting discussions. Wish we had more.

I wish we had more post-voting discussions, when we could talk about actual pictures and opinions rather than hypotheticals ...


Well, I just posted 3 from past challenges...you could express your own artistic opinions.
02/11/2018 03:18:50 PM · #16
Originally posted by pixelpig:

Originally posted by GeneralE:

Originally posted by pixelpig:

I love these pre-voting discussions. Wish we had more.

I wish we had more post-voting discussions, when we could talk about actual pictures and opinions rather than hypotheticals ...


Well, I just posted 3 from past challenges...you could express your own artistic opinions.

I can't define it any better than anyone else, but when I went browsing for a possible entry I looked for an image which could be interpreted as something more/other than a literal depiction of the subject, but without being wholly abstract or unrecognizable.
02/11/2018 05:47:54 PM · #17
Originally posted by pixelpig:



I love these pre-voting discussions. Wish we had more. FYI I am not entering this challenge, so my comments here should not be taken as me attempting to control or influence either the entrants or the voters to my expectations.


why not, for heaven's sake?! I'm shocked and dismayed! Go find something!

Message edited by author 2018-02-11 18:12:39.
02/11/2018 06:42:37 PM · #18
Martin Heidegger has talked about what art is. So has Ayn Rand. Susan Sontag has talked about what photography is. John Berger has talked about what seeing is.

When looking for art, I listen to Berger, Heidegger, and Sontag and do the opposite of Rand.
02/11/2018 07:08:39 PM · #19
Originally posted by posthumous:

Martin Heidegger has talked about what art is. So has Ayn Rand. Susan Sontag has talked about what photography is. John Berger has talked about what seeing is.

When looking for art, I listen to Berger, Heidegger, and Sontag and do the opposite of Rand.


Forgot about Sontag -- I have to go back and finish the book
02/11/2018 07:36:39 PM · #20
I'm in! I look forward to seeing this one.
02/11/2018 09:04:25 PM · #21
"I once had the nerve to ask Picasso the question "What is art?" He answered, "Art is a lie which makes us see the truth." (James Dickey)"
(And then : what is the truth?)

There are endless quips on this subject. Probably one of the most concise statement is:
Art? You just do it. (Martin Ritt)

Give me an image that will make me stop and pause. And think. And wonder and inspire.

Artistic? By no means this would be only an abstract, blurry, colorful or B&W image that ignores and despises technical aspects as a lot of people expect. And just "pretty". Or beautiful, whatever that means - or all of the above but mixed it just so that is beyond a comfortable, pleasant viewing.
02/11/2018 10:41:39 PM · #22
Art creates a world.

Or maybe that's too grandiose.

Art creates a home.

Or maybe it's just a room.

Art says, 'Welcome to this room.'

And nothing else.

Art just leaves you in the room.

Art can be frustrating that way. Not explaining any thing to you.

But sometimes that's what you want.

You want to be welcomed to someone else's home, but you also want to be left alone. You want to be in this other world, but you want to see it for yourself.

And sometimes you blink your eyes a few times and think, wait, this is MY home.

And sometimes in a moment of weakness you think this is more home than my home.

Wait, where am I? You ask. Are those tears in your eyes?

And that's when you give out your posthumous Blue Ribbon, like someone who was raised from the dead.

Or maybe that's too grandiose.

Like a hot cup of coffee on Saturday morning.

That's it. Art is coffee.
02/11/2018 11:40:42 PM · #23
I stalked Art* through the underbrush.
Once I heard her call
on the last day of fall,
but she was only a thrush afraid of the snow.
I followed her to a hill
above the Haverskill,
but she was only wind blowing low
through the pines.
I almost saw her face
near that quiet place,
but she was the sky's evening line,
and I had fallen far behind.

Message edited by author 2018-02-11 23:41:05.
02/12/2018 12:00:57 AM · #24
Art simplifies and complicates an emotion in the same swish.
02/12/2018 12:40:15 AM · #25
and art also helps us to roll on the floor larfing our asses off.
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