Contemporary photographer

The amateur photographer uses a technique that everyone knows. It is such a common technique that one might wonder if photography is an art like painting or sculpture.

The contemporary photographer now uses all digital tools. However, the original soul of photography is still part of the fundamentals of the discipline. The photographer is one of the most dynamic contemporary artists Since the appearance of the first photos, after the work of Niepce and Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre, (1824), photographic images have had an artistic character.

At the time, the technique was in its infancy. A plate coated with a thin layer of silver iodide was exposed in a darkroom, then treated with mercury vapor which produced an image.

Quickly, creative minds, like painters, saw this process as a new means of expression. An artistic movement will follow.

Nowadays, there are many styles of photographic art. From photojournalism to conceptual photographic art, including all the digital compositions that new technologies allow.

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Photography and Digital Art

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Is photography an art?

The question is still relevant today.

Often on the fringes of the concepts that define a work of art, photographic images have long invaded our contemporary societies.

More and more, they are carried out by the camera of a Smartphone. Digitized, they become easier to duplicate and process.

Photographs are consumed in large quantities. However, an image, not necessarily a “photographic work”. For it to become one, it must meet a few conditions:

The print must have been made by the artist.
It must bear the imprint of the personality of its author
It must be signed or authenticated by the artist
It must be limited to 30 copies.

But what does photographic work mean?

The photographs are classified between commercial, leisure and art photographs.

To put it more explicitly, there has been a long-standing trend that people who take photographs are professional photographers. They are paid for this work while art photographers are not bound by an order. The border is not obvious.

Professionals in fashion photography, or press photography, some have nevertheless become famous. Mario Testino, Guy Bourdin, Annie Leibovitz, Helmut Newton, Annie Leibovitz, Peter Lindbergh, for fashion photography; Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Raymond Depardon and Robert Doisneau , for press photography.

They revealed the beauty of the models and immortalized moments of history, or simply bore witness to an era.

Fashion photographers

Through their views, these artists revolutionized the image of art. Like Flemish painters like Johannes Vermeer, these pioneers of photography expressed the scenes of life and the symbols of our contemporary societies.

In reality, it is difficult to differentiate between an art photographer and a photographer in general. It’s the approach and the look that make the difference.

Charming or romantic photography

Since the appearance of photography, charming photography has held a special place in the discipline. It initially served as a model for painters, but quickly it was considered an art in its own right.

Quite confidential at the start, the charming photographer gained notoriety from the 1950s onwards. Exhibitions on the theme feature increasingly well-known artists such as David Hamilton for example.

Avant-gardism

As photography establishes itself as an artistic discipline in its own right, an avant-garde movement appears. Some photographers adapt the new thoughts of cubism, constructivism and surrealism. Note the works of Moholy-Nagy and Man Ray

Photojournalism

Appearing from the beginnings of photography, the press seized this new medium intended as an objective testimony. In reality, the photographers immediately took their liberty in processing the events.

Reporter photographers free themselves from editorial staff and question aesthetics even at the heart of the most dramatic situations.

Robert Capa was part of the June 1944 landing on Omaha Beach. He took numerous photographs which contributed to historical memory, but also to the history of art. Unfortunately, many negatives were destroyed forever during the operation.

Conceptual photography

The generalization of photography caused a reaction in the art world. We can consider three positions:

1- Conceptual realism which questions raw reality without artifice. ( Bernd and Hilla Becher were inspired by industrial heritage)

2- The event narration which occurs as part of the testimony. Andreas Gursky produces extremely precise large format photos. Additionally, he can be classified as a realist who followed the theories of the Düsseldorf school .

Andreas Gusky's work will evolve towards the pop'art of Andy Warhol.

Artistic photography uses the technique to compete with graphic arts.

Artistic photography uses techniques along the lines of graphic arts.
In the field of Street art and pop art, with the advent of digital processing, photographers at the end of the 20th century drew inspiration from advertising codes. The objective is to interact with the viewer through the symbols of the consumerist world. As the public shows a new interest in photography, the medium evolves towards perfection of form. The artistic approaches are varied, but they require interpretation from the viewer more than ever. (Note the arrival of Gilbert and Georges on the photographic scene with their series of photomontages). They position themselves as anti-elite and close to the people. The “Naked Shit Pictures” (1995) have indeed become very popular. “ Class War, Militant, Gateway ” was exhibited in 2015 at the Louis Vuitton Foundation.

Birth of contemporary artistic photography

The word “contemporary photographer” has taken root over the last twenty years. Previously, no one used this kind of term.

The year 1995, with the birth of the Internet, saw an irreversible change regarding the production and distribution of art.

Immediately, a large number of images flooded the Internet at high speed. With the advent of SNS (Social Networking) Facebook (2004) and Instagram (2010), daily images and videos taken by strangers were added to the mass of existing photographs. The phenomenon continues to increase exponentially. This rapid change has even exceeded expectations.

Since Wolfgang Tillmans won the Turner Prize in 2000, photography has irreversibly moved towards contemporary art.

Why such a change ?

Reference should be made to curator Charlotte Cotton “Contemporary Photography: The Future of Photography as Contemporary Art” published by the British publisher Thames & Hudson in 2004. This publication quickly acquired worldwide influence.

This book constitutes a birth certificate of photography in contemporary art. The wide range of photographers that are considered in this book include artists such as Isa Genzken, Jeff Wall, Sophie Calle, Thomas Demand, Nan Goldin and Sherry Levine, not to mention emerging artists like Sara VanDerBeek, Rashid Johnson, Viviane Sassen and Amalia Ulman.

This edition is not the first on the subject. However, it gives relief to more recent practices which are still revolutionizing the vision of the image. Photography becomes a culturally essential medium. It is more than ever a powerful means of expressing socio-political power.

Is it not the noblest function of contemporary art to offer alternatives to bourgeois conservatism which tends to freeze agreed trends in order to better control them?

Behind its didactic aspect, Charlotte Coton's book demonstrates the need for contemporary photographers to escape the artistic niche where certain art thinkers would like to confine them.

I think we should not forget that the emergence and establishment of the word “photography as contemporary art” occurred in such a contemporary environment.

The impact of the digital revolution on art

The advent of the Internet society gave birth to SNS (Social Network). This transforms the art world in relation to economic globalization.

The generalization of digital image processing and mobile phone technology have completely changed the paradigm surrounding the art of photography. The raw image taken with a camera becomes a material that can be shaped and transformed at will to create images that are often far removed from the original photography. The possibilities are limitless for transforming reality and extending human visual culture beyond realities through new effects.

Digital tools have appeared, “digital capture”, “Photoshop”, pigment printing and recently 3D printing.

They have lastingly changed our approach to images. Photographers initially adapted. Then, they became specialists in these new technologies. Evolution is frenetic and the world has become “ connected fantasy.” »

As Charlotte Cotton says, we are on the “edge of chaos” of “modern photography” as a foreign body. Without going to this extreme, it seems obvious that behind the artificial image, the contemporary photographer has the responsibility to maintain a link with the nature of art.

What is the future of photography? Position photography as contemporary art

From the 1990s, photography went completely digital. This gives photographs a profound change that goes beyond just switching from analog optical to digital. Photography has become fundamentally different from painting. The meaning of photography linked to “truth” has been turned upside down. New photographic works appear. Developments in this area still seem underestimated. Photography as an expression of a physical truth is still defended by conservatives. Others think that it is time to completely emancipate ourselves from reality to live in virtuality. For my part, I think that technological evolution and economic globalization do not keep pace with the evolution of humanity. It is necessary not to lose the basics of this art. Moreover, many young artists still use old-fashioned photography on film. Artistic richness cannot exist without a cohabitation of genres, it is almost a fundamental rule. However, we must prepare for such “chaos”. Then, reconsider the context of photography as contemporary art. Photographers have now moved beyond the digitalization stage, to enter economic globalization through innovative computer technologies. (Blockchain NFT etc.) At the same time, they are recognized as actors in contemporary art. For how long ? We must never forget that photography is an art, with its own language and its own aesthetic. Among contemporary photographers, there is no consensus. The future will tell !