Purposeful Photography

<p>Proportionately there's more people looking at and making art than at any other time. If many prefer Impressionism I would guess it's because abstraction said nothing to them and post-modernism was a dead letter. Of course they return to the past. And what is the appeal of the contemporary admonition of showing how many styrofoam cups circles the world in a days waste cycle, when we're captured by an economy that thrives on waste? A small group it is, that looks for more than just a pleasurable escape from art. Movies are the primary choice of visual fulfillment. </p>

<p>I enjoyed the spirited defense of museums and the art establishment, even though I am in the rebel camp.</p>

<p>Kenneth Smith,<br>

Did you mean to say, "...an economy that thrives on <em>making</em> waste?" If not, I am not sure I understand the remark as written.</p>

<p>I agree with you that movies are the one contemporary art form that gets plenty of popular exposure.</p>

Pangur Ban

 

I and Pangur Ban my cat,

 

Tis a like task we are at:

 

Hunting mice is his delight,

 

Hunting words I sit all night.

 

 

 

Better far than praise of men

 

Tis to sit with book and pen;

 

Pangur bears me no ill will,

 

He too plies his simple skill.

 

 

Tis a merry thing to see

 

At our tasks how glad are we,

 

When at home we sit and find

 

Entertainment to our mind.

 

 

Oftentimes a mouse will stray

 

In the hero Pangur's way;

 

Oftentimes my keen thought set

 

Takes a meaning in its net.

 

 

'Gainst the wall he sets his eye

 

Full and fierce and sharp and sly;

 

'Gainst the wall of knowledge I

 

All my little wisdom try.

 

When a mouse darts from its den

 

O how glad is Pangur then!

 

O what gladness do I prove

 

When I solve the doubts I love!

 

 

So in peace our tasks we ply,

 

Pangur Ban, my cat, and I;

 

In our arts we find our bliss,

 

I have mine and he has his.

 

 

 

Practice every day has made

 

Pangur perfect in his trade;

 

I get wisdom day and night

 

Turning darkness into light.

 

(8th century, anonymous)

Odd that got posted to this thread. The moderator should remove it.

<p><strong>m - "</strong>I enjoyed the spirited defense of museums and the art establishment, even though I am in the rebel camp."</p>

<p>It was not a defense....more of a description. I neither deplore nor champion museums, but simply accept them as they are. Nor do I believe there's one 'art club' but many levels. At each one lie many tribes. Of course, when people refer to 'the club', they're referring to the top tier, because that's the one that interests them most. I was not asserting that Museums are the top form of ertentainment, either. But I'm glad you enjoyed what I wrote.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>m. stephens, I mean the economy thrives on wastefulness. It depends on it and purposely builds it into the system. But I don't mean to dismiss world awareness style art making</p>

<p>http://www.chrisjordan.com/gallery/midway/#CF000313%2018x24 This guy is brilliant.</p>

<p>I just meant to address how the public is not drawn either to that, or much art in general. It doesn't express their concerns much. And I'm not seperating the shotguns, ATV's and beenie baby crowd from the people who know what Chris Burden was nailed to, I'm just saying generally the public has been left out of the artworld for a good long time now. Probably since the church was the main patron. The great exception to this however is the amount interested and the amount that produce themselves. That has grown considerably, but is still small, I think...</p>

<p>I too am in the rebel camp, but am crippled sometimes by a feeling of pointless pastiche in both painting and photography, with the worst part of it being that I'm not interested in what direction the institution went. But I accept it because it exemplifies far more import than I. It's kind of maniacal how constant change is forced out of career hungry art students to feed what amounts to a system that is only vaguely different than any other commercial enterprise.</p>

<p>Kenneth Smith,<br>

Thank you. Now I understand perfectly your comment. That entire post above makes me smile broadly - thanks. How do you think it happens that the public is left out of the art world?</p>

"How do you think it happens that the public is left out of the art world?"

 

Have you looked at what passes for public art these days?

<p>Industrialism freed the public from the church. Their interest in individual material gain outweighed traditional culture and collective symbols. Art became more commodity, status, investment, and decoration. Until finally the most cherished of anachronisms kept on respirators. </p>

<p>The good news is that art has been embraced in an everyman style outside of the machinations of mainstream brokers. Now we need to meet in the middle, to avoid solipsism from the public, and post post modernism from the brokers.</p>

 

<p>Correction: I meant Neo Post Modernism. Post Post Modernism would be a good thing.</p>

<p>Been a long week on "Purposfull." Trying to process it, I'm seeing cynicism here in many comments, but after all, it's only banter and you learn good stuff. <br>

Hierarchical systems are always suspect. There is a "Don't call me an artist, I'm only messing with you" kind of art. Museums and art galleries are political institutions anyway. Anyone caught up in one is no better for it. One should be suspicious of art education . You lean unnecessary things. The public is ignorant about art so public art is better. Anyway, street art looks better photographed and put in museums. Naive art is good unless the artist has an MFA. Popular art isn't good art even if it wasn't popular when it was good. Edvard Munch "Scream" inflatable dolls (like). Art about kitsch (especially photography ) is cool irony. Sofa-size photographs should be given less respect -- careerist. As should intimate-size images in large mats -- dilettante. <br>

Loved the cat poem Don. Always said those 10Th C. monks had it all figured out.</p><div></div>

<p><em>"One should be suspicious of art education. You lean [sic] unnecessary things."</em></p>

<p>You learn unnecessary things in any subject. A good student knows how to prioritize what he learns. He knows what to underline in the book.</p>

<p>Actually, the best students may be the ones who take what all the others think is unnecessary and make that into something significant. (A good student or . . . an artist.)</p>

<p>Don's 8th century anonymous poem of the cat and the writer has the following line:</p>

<p><em>"I get wisdom day and night</em><br>

<em>Turning darkness into light."</em></p>

<p>That symbolises purpose and to a great extent art. What is art but a methodology that is based on the following acts of a person who is a (an):</p>

<p>inventor<br>

creator<br>

imaginer (or one who imagines, as for one who creates, or who explores, etc.)<br>

explorer<br>

researcher<br>

conceiver<br>

improviser<br>

envisager</p>

<p>Perhaps these defining elements of art are better expressed as "one who creates" or "one who improvises", etc. Using these descriptors or expressions avoids the often meaningless or contentious use/abuse of the term artist. </p>

<p>Purpose and purposeful photography has also some relation to these acts.</p>

<p>The use of labels like artist, poet, writer, engineer, philosopher, medical doctor often assumes that one has some form of qualification of support. Certainly, professional engineers will often look askance at those calling themselves engineers who may drive trains, adjust your air conditioning system, operate within a work group building army bridges and structures, or who are responsible for the maintenance of large buildings. They will ask, with some reason, why are you appropriating the title of engineers who undertake advanced studies at university level to apply science to the conception of man's material needs, whether demonstrably fairly simple or of high complexity? On the other hand, it is known that the world has seen brilliant inventors and appliers of science who have had little formal qualifications, but rely instead on an agile, curious and inventive mind. Similarily, having an MFA or an even more basic education in the visual arts is a privilege and an advantage, but not exclusive to being an artist. A professional (artist, other) is simply someone who acknowledges being part of a body that practices that activity. That person may be more highly skilled than an amateur, but not always so (knowledge and formative experience is acquired both within and without educational institutions). </p>

<p>Back to the above descriptors for artist. Applying them (and others I have not included) to creating original photography would seem to me to describe to some extent the methodology of purposeful photography and a large part of what constitutes art. Rather than use the latter term, in view of its history of use, I am personally more apt to want to apply those of the above one word descriptors that have some relevance to what I am doing as a photographer. </p>

<p> </p>

<p><strong>AZ - "</strong><em>"One should be suspicious of art education. You lean [sic] unnecessary things"</em></p>

<p>Heavens! Unnecessary things. Why...that's frivolous.</p>

<p><em>"Education is what remains when what was learned is forgotten" -- BF Skinner<br /></em></p>

<p>Now that this post seems about spent, and I have just finished re-reading the whole thing, I just wanted to express my sincere thanks to you all. This has been a unique experience for me. I have posted a few things elsewhere over the years, but have never had such luck to find the depth and generosity in discussion that I have found here. I will print this out and keep it with me, and will reread it again and again. It is that rich.</p>

<p>The thing I learned more than anything, was not directly related to my question, but was instead this. To slow down and patiently read what people are going to the trouble to say, because there is so much more in it than the hurried anxious responder will ever know.</p>

<p>As to the initial question. Quite simply, I will continue working as I have been all along, and will try to accept myself, my style, limitations, and degree of passion for what they are, and hopefully without further harassment from my ill conceived comparative mentality. Good luck on that one.</p>

<p>Thank You one and all. It has been an honor to receive your wisdom.</p>

<p>Kenneth Smith</p>

<p>Hope you understand I was very loosely summarizing not necessarily agreeing with some of the thoughts put forth in the topic thread. <br>

I taught art history in a business college along with graphic design and photography for a number of years so you can be sure I taught only necessary stuff. I told them with complete sincerity that learning about art was the most important class they would take in college. For most, they got to make their first trip to an art museum.<br>

I was at the MFA today and it was packed as usual. All those art haters.</p>

<p>Kenneth,</p>

<p>I forgot to pass along one final piece of advice.</p>

<p>Spend a day shooting only red objects or objects with some red color on them.</p>

<p>For extra credit shoot them all at a single focal length (e.g. 35 mm).</p>

<p>And for every photo that you take in 'landscape' orientation, take another shot of the same object in 'portrait' orientation.</p>

<p>Will this make your photography more purposeful? I have no idea, but you'll capture photographs that you would have overlooked otherwise. And maybe, just maybe, seeing the world from a fresh perspective is the only 'purpose' that should really matter to a visual artist, or to any creative person for that matter.</p>

<p>:-)</p>