"Painting with Light"
I do not claim to be an erudite if that is the correct word in English on the history or terminology for different specializations in photography..on the contrary...but when I think of the Latin root of the the word photography, writing with light or maybe painting with light is still what the term implies.
For me photographers that above all others show that they have understood the meaning of that term are Robert Capa with his famous photograph of a Republican Militiaman meeting his death, caught in midair by Capa's lens.
And of course Henri Cartier Bresson during his wanderings through Paris (and Spain), Ansel Adams and Burtynsky with his photo series of ships being transformed into scrap metal on India's beaches, and last but not least Robert Mapplethorpe..whether it be his photo of Andy Warhol, or his male nudes. These artists all had their own time enduring vision of what photography meant to them, how to "paint" with "light" and arrest that light on a flat surface like some kind of geological deposit, a moment in time stopped in it's tracks...
René-Frank,
Although it
sounds poetic, few photographers really "paint with light! In commercials, fashion and portrait photography, they do that but most other photographers
hunt for the right scene like a lion stalks its prey at the
appropriate time to make the kill. To say the photographer "Paints" with light is akin to saying the lion "seduces" the deer!
Choosing what and how to photograph what's actually there: Robert Capa didn't paint with light. He and Cartier Bresson doggedly discovered, chased and
chose what to photograph.
Lighting a Subject he posed:Robert Mapplethorpe, perhaps then "painted" with light
Posing a Subject someone else photoshops/retouches:Annie Leibovitz
Waiting for the right light: then adding and removing grain with a knife, extensive over or under exposure, changes in development, drawing on negatives: Ansel Adams. (He would have been a master at Photoshop).
So I'd say, outside of commercial, fashion, weddings and the like, having
selected the subject, the lighting of the subject is just what "happens". There's no alteration of the light at all so one can't talk of "painting"! Most street, reporting and landscape photographers merely get the timing right! The sky might paint with light. The photographer then just opportunistically turns up at the right time! That's no technical feat, just a
hunting tactic.
However, "Painting with Light" might might apply to careful portrait and still life work where light is
chosen shaped and and modified
just for for the subject by bringing the light to the subject or the subject to the light. For example, bring a person to the window at a particular distance and position and controlling reflections, might fit in with this romantic concept.
So what is "Photography" then, if not "Painting with Light"? It's rather mundane. Somehow light energy has to be captured, transposed (actually by energizing electrons) which can recorded in proportion to the intensity variation of light over the exposed photosensitive area. So we can now provide a clearer definition of what photography is.
I'd say that photography is a photoelectric process of recording light reflections from an interesting subject and its subsequent development into a picture that represents the physicality of the subject and perhaps related ideas and feelings. The most impressive such pictures provide so strong experience that people seek them out.
Now what are the requirements to be a photographer
worthy of the title? Well, for a start, look at Maris' conditions in my next post.
Asher