Though I’m always reluctant to say the words “I am an artist” or “I am a photographer” out loud, I’ve secretly thought them…maybe in subconscious hopes that it will begin to sound less pretentious to my own ears. Through teaching both of these subjects, it’s hard to not put my own skill or creative tendencies in context of what I am teaching (both in photography and art appreciation) my students. This was especially true last week as we dove into Impressionism in art appreciation and I poured through one of my favorite sources Art: A New History (Paul Johnson).
Impressionism is usually known to have not been widely accepted in its beginnings (although I’ve read some opinions that that has been exaggerated). That changed over time…but at what cost? Johnson said:
“But as always with artistic successes, there were drawbacks. One was a certain loss of individuality. Art is essentially a personal response to the visual world, and an artist should always be wary of belonging to a coterie. Of the artists commonly classified as Impressionists, it was those who were emphatically not impressionistic but realists who kept their individuality–Degas and Mary Cassatt, Toulouse-Lautrec and Caillebotte.”
What’s my point? With my “photographer’s mind” I immediately thought of my own art form. With the widespread ability (Travesty? No, I kid.) to easily obtain a camera comes a loss of individuality. In certain genres of photography especially, there’s an alarming amount of repetition. Not to say I haven’t been guilty of it too, but with the internet, its like a brushfire of…bad ideas? Or one good idea copied relentlessly until it is so deteriorated as to lose its value. Using tracing paper well over an original does not make me an artist. I’m not so worried about labels/perceptions as I am over my continuation of growth. At the same time–shouting I’M DIFFERENT! from the rooftops won’t accomplish anything either. So it’s no good to be different for the sake of being different.
But I ask myself, at the risk of sounding ego-centric, what do I have to say and how can I say it best?
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