Activity #9 - Write About It! - REWRITE

Rewrite:

Before the camera, when an artist wanted to capture a subject on canvas, he simply captured the subject on the canvas.

The widespread use of the camera brought about many changes to the appearance of visual arts. The most noted change, artists realized that the subject didn’t have to be the most important item on the canvas. When a picture is taken with a camera, the finished product encompasses far more objects than the photographer intended to see, yet these items tend to add to the overall presentation, feel, meaning of the work. For example, a pre-camera artist may want to paint a toddler in his Sunday best holding his favorite toy. The painting would probably consist of the child with his toy on a solid background. A photographer, attempting to capture the same content, would end up with a finished product that may include the entire toy chest and other less important items belonging to the child in the background. Painters realized people enjoyed the look of photographs and all they encompassed and their artwork began to emulate photographs. No longer did painters wait for a specific subject to create a portrait, they did as cameramen did and captured everyday life. City scenes, landscapes, action scenes. Whatever a camera could or would photograph, a painter could or would paint.

The style in which paintings were created changed too. When photographing a scene, especially from a distance, one may be able to tell what they are looking at but that doesn’t necessarily mean the camera capture a very good picture of the image. Artists like Claude Monet, began to paint in a technique that mocked the blurry, yet distinguishable figures in photographs when painting his landscapes. Thus Impressionism was born. When looking at an Impressionist painting up close, you will only see lines, dots and splashes of color that really make no sense at all. Once you step back and take a second look, the colors will come together and the figures will begin to make sense.

The painting themselves began to emulate photographs as well. No longer was the subject centered on the picture plane with a noticeable border along the edges. Paintings were actually cropped on all sides as if the painter saw his subject through a camera lens.

*****************************************************************************************************
Original work:

The invention and widespread use of the camera has had several effects on visual arts. From the inherent use of the camera to the uses of the camera, the visual arts world has simply developed a new extension belonging exclusively to photographs.

Before the development of photography, the works of visual artists, such as portraits, were reserved for the well-to-do. Artists were commissioned for the lengthy processes of creating such paintings and the finished products were viewed only by a few. By contrast, photos could be created relatively quickly (when compared to a painting) and inexpensively, thus introducing itself to middle and even some lower class people allowing them an invitation into the world of visual arts. On the same token, people who would never consider themselves artists were given the opportunity to capture subjects, without the talent a painter would have, that were just as aesthetically pleasing as an oil on canvas. Quite frankly, a new breed of artists was developed!

When a painter recorded people or events, the finished products were the results of his interpretations. A viewer of his works is left to wonder how much truth is contained in the painting. Is the situation as peaceful as he says it is or are things far worse? With the length of time it took to create a painting, one is left to wonder is there still peace in the land or is the hardship still ongoing? Photography brought truth to the arts and it brought it much faster than a painting ever could. When looking at the photograph, Migrant Mother by Dorothea Lange 1936, (Getlein 217) there is no denying the turmoil in the life of the subjects. And because it is a photograph, 1936 viewers knew what was going on at that time, not months later.

Many careers in the visual arts have been created directly from the use of photography. Be it on film or digital media, whether its photojournalism or fashion model photography, the use of the camera has impacted, even made, many lives in the art world.

A true photographer will know that just the way a person feels when they see a beautiful painting in a museum, if a subject is captured correctly on the other side of his lens, it is just a breathtaking. Photos have a way of capturing the beauty of the real world (and beauty is in the eye of the beholder!) and allowing one to actually own it.

Source: Getlein, Mark Living With Art, 8th Ed. 2006