Saturday, March 15, 2008
Photography and Painting
Photography is like stabbing with a knife but painting is like meditation. I don't remember where I heard that but it struck a chord. I have been involved with cameras and photography all my life and I realize what it takes to make a good photograph but it doesn't compare with having to carefully work every inch of a painting with consideration on every brush stroke.
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3 comments:
Basically right, but:
Photography CAN also be like a meditation with a LONG period of not yet clicking. Then it may end with that "stab with a knife". I recently saw a feature about a German female photographer who does that. She said she was a keen watcher of things, and only sometimes does she take a picture. But then it is "the shot". Most important is what comes before the final click!
Taking an outdoor photograph involves and shows a "stab" of time--a piece of physical material viewed in a nano-second of its existence, still, frozen, breathless. Painting a landscape involves and shows a piece of the physical plane over a period of time--it is influenced, visited, & "lived with" by the painter; a successful landscape is alive and full of breath because the artist has chosen to interact with it in a creative & constructive relationship. I think. :~)
I also feel painting is a great form of mediation, For me at least.
When I paint I'm lost in that painting. Any peronal problems do not enter my mind.
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