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Your art exhibit story reminds me of the story of the carpenter who went to the see the Mona Lisa. As he was standing there looking at the picture, a Self Absorbed Art Critic walked up and said:
"It quite a work of art isn't it?" The carpenter replied: "I wonder how long it took to carve that." 
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You are dead on right. Photoshop is one of the tools used now a days to create an illusion rather than a work of art. I use it extensively as a technical tool but realize that it will never replace the depth of a well composed and properly lighted original.
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They say that an artist never stops tweaking. I guess perfection is more of a process than a destination.
"My Pencils Outlast Their Erasers'" & "I wish I had chosen a different Hue" |
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The Ansel Adams darkroom story exhibits the perfectionist coming out in a fine craftsman, who, on many occasions created art.
I will also argue that the dark room work to achieve a higher end product is a far cry from owning a graphics program and a highly functional computer. |
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Thanks for complement Bobby Tony. I reckon I was frustrated with the whole art-for-art's-sake-now- whose-dumbass-do-I-have-to-kiss-to-get-noticed thing.
At the risk of sour grapes, I still will probably will always have a problem with ineffectualness, and then pretentiousness to compensate for that condition. My wife will tell anyone, that I too often have a camera in my hand, which started more as a condition of BCN than anything else. And I spent much time to get to the point of knowing when to shoot images, adn when not to keep what I take. I guess the upside to all that time with my DSLR is I now spend far less time getting more pictures that I want to keep, and I never alter any images except to 1) crop them; 2) to right them to the x/y axis. I just toss them, but far less now than in the past. |
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Stan, you images are proof that you have attained a "Level of Oneness" that the philosophers talk about with your subject matter. A perfect photograph is as much a statement about the photographer as it is about the picture.
As one who has had a long fascination with photography, but did not possess the "Mind's Eye" to capture the deeper emotional content of a scene or image, I often fell back on the crutch of after the fact doctoring an image in the darkroom. Capturing the subject matter involves the technique and competence with the equipment, but it is more than technical competence that matters. One lesson in photography that I was never able to master was the patience to wait for just the right moment to capture the moment. Of course, the first lesson for amateurs is to take plenty of pictures for later review and selection. I also fell into the trap of trying to mimic one of the great landscape photographers, based on a book I read about him. Long before computers made GIGO a catch phrase, photographers depended on the crutch of after the fact manipulation. "Ansel Adams is well known for spending a whole day in the darkroom, just to produce one print. 50% of the Creative Process Occurred in the Dark Room" expertphotography.com Keep up the good work, screen images do not do justice to your work and I am glad you are offering them as hard copy prints. |
| Space in Time Photographic Prints: Volume V | A Description of the Visual Arts and Graphics, Art Talk, The Arts | The Passing of Music Icons 2017 - Glen Campbell - August 8, 2017 |
We use photoshop here at SNI as a wonderful design tool, we teach photoshop, and while, I do not have time to learn the tool completely, and I plan to, I know it when I see it