Roger Scruton on Photography Essay

In the second half of the twentieth century, artistic movements made pushes in order to move beyond the traditional gallery space, changing the terrain of displaying and making art. An artist’s body of work no longer needed to reside inside of a gallery or art collection, and artists became free to explore other ways of creating and displaying work. In this vein, Andy Goldsworthy works sculpturally with natural media, and leaves the sculptures within a particular environment, often expecting his work to decay quickly. Many times, the only evidence of any art he makes is the photographs taken during the process. By more traditional standards, art of this nature is entirely contradictory. What is the point of pieces of visual art that cannot

The painting takes what the eye can see and extends it further, to a realm that cannot be captured by someone unless they have the patience and diligence to see beyond the obvious and capture more than the eye permits.

Marcel Duchamp stated that "It was his achievement to treat the camera as he treated the paintbrush, as a mere instrument at the service of the mind” (Biography.com, 2017). In addition, the photogram might seem expressive and abstract, yet on the contrary, it is the precise medium to document the everyday objects in an unrepeatable and somehow uncontrollable way. The artist cannot predict how the selected objects will be recorded under the light sources that were tampered with. From the first glance, the image completely dissociated from its original subject, allowing one’s memory to fill the gap. Yet below its surface, the image is an accurate documentation that captured a moment of psychical intensity. It revealed a new visual experience, using objects in the simplest way. One can say that the use of this medium disclosed reality more preciously due to its invisibility and mysterious representation (The Museum of Modern Art, 2017).

Maggie Saldivar’s Toulmin Schema argues whether or not Art should have a definition, and if so what its definition should really be. The Schema outlines what many well-known Artists define as of Art, some of which correlated with her claim, while others were relatively specific, and opposed/challenged her claim. The author's original claim; Art should not have a definition, was not altered throughout the process of writing the Toulmin Schema, and therefore it’s qualifier is nearly identical to the beginning claim.

Swenson, with just very few colors, was still able to capture a movement within the painting. This painting also has a very plain background. This was most likely was intended for the viewers imagination to fill in the rest of the story in considering we only have a piece to base it off of. Swenson uses a diorama approach typically to create his scenes.

I agree with Walton that there is such a difference between what viewers see in photographs and paintings. When someone looks at a photograph of a person, they are seeing that person in a fixed way, a real representation. However, a painting of a person, even if not intended, is not going to be as clear and explicit as a

Ever since the camera was invented in 1839, the very nature of photography has been questioned. With the increasing advent of photographic technology, photography has become an egalitarian expression of society and community. With one press of a button, an image is captured for eternity, bringing to question the inherent artistic quality of photographs. If we can so quickly capture an image, can this be deemed art? Art is to promote fantasy, and dream, to incite anger and joy. Thus, surely photography is an art, as seen through its capturing of beautiful verdant landscapes, and the horrendous

cannot understand what it means to perceive something for more than it is literally. Danto somewhat agrees with Testadura by saying that by protesting “all he can see is paint”, he is absolutely correct. The paint is all he says or that anyone at all can see for that matter. However, Danto also disagrees in which he mentions that there’s more than just the outside and physical demeanors to an artwork but also the internal implication of it.

Art is tied to many things. Art is a visual thing that can’t just be shown in paintings even though some people think that, and

Art is a way that humans use to express their creative, skill, and imagination. For most artists using the world and all other unimaginable things are how they come up with their own work. One example, is Daryl Thetford, who is an amazing artist that makes art out of all kinds of photographs. One photograph is the search for realty, which is of a man sanding on a clock while holding a remote control pointed on a bulletin board full all kinds of photographs. The photograph colors are all light colors, many shapes, and many lines are used in the photograph. The search for realty is a vertical panting that expresses Thetford overview of the world, and how in many things in hid panting we see many evidence of his world view. The way Thetford views

I feel as if we have asked the question, “Is photography an art?” and “Can photography be considered a type of language?” many times in this quarter and we still cannot get a direct answer. Additionally, the truth of the matter is that we will never really know if it is because people have different opinions of what is art. For instance, in “Literacy and Picturacy,” Heffernan explains that there is something real behind every photograph. He explains that photographs allows to see the story that is being told instead of simply reading it. Earlier in the quarter we also read “On photography” in which Barthes claims that photography is not an art because it is simply an imitation of reality. In other words, he is saying that photography is just

     “Images were first made to conjure up the appearance of something that was absent. Gradually it became evident that an image could outlast what it represented; it then showed how something or somebody had once looked- and thus by implication how the subject had once been seen by other people(Berger 108)”. Simply put, it is a progression of ideas, which Freire terms as the invention and re-invention in order for knowledge to emerge. The original intent of the image is now seen as an “old” view, as new ideas are emerging with the ever changing world.

To determine why modern art qualifies as art, it is necessary to determine what art is exactly. What separates a work of art from being just an ordinary object? Art critic and philosopher Arthur Danto devotes his book The Transfiguration of the Commonplace to answering this question.

I purposely deny my own presence, my own authorship, and my own representation by declaring the ownership of my surrounding reality, and hence I see each image as a self-portrait because it is seen through my own eyes. By observing the world and myself in a different way, I declare the impossibility of identifying one’s own identity with nothing other than the void of my own persona. Through denying my own representation I allow these paintings to address the history and future of modernity declining, while simultaneously continuing the autobiography of painting in a relentless multiplication of my own self.

and art paintings it portrays something, tells a story, and lets the viewer imagine something