Fine Art Essay

The topic fine art is important to an artistic audience because visually the art that is produced is hugely appreciated because of its creative and imaginative nature. Fine art has two functions which makes it important in society and photography. The first function is to prettify the world with its aesthetically pleasing bright and vibrant colours this transforms it from being duel and boring. Examples of this are landscapes, flowers and wildlife. The second function that makes fine art important is to challenge viewers thoughts, feelings and emotions and for them to possibly change their perspective on the world. Furthermore fine art is important in photography because the world is so big that its impossible to see every part of its beauty. Therefore by a photographer capturing for example a landscape that someone hasn't visited allows them to see it and its beauty without actually being there. In addition fine art is very frequent in society because its part of our everyday lifestyle as we have most probably seen and absorbed it since we were born. Therefore there are endless possibilities of visual ideas that fine art photography can produce.

Photography from my research was shown to had begun in the 1820's this was when the first camera in photography was invented. In the 1820's photography captured more information and detail compared to other traditional medium.Furthermore as photography developed also in the 1820's came the invention of the chemicals. This made photography a usable process. When looking back at the history of fine art photography before fine art was accepted as a photography form there was a series of events and movements that happened before this. This is because early photography was recordings and photographs of discoveries and historical events this then lead to the national geographic magazine presenting the photography as a new way of communicating for the audience. In addition the photographic processes that began fine art were daguerreotype,  tintype, ambrotype and other photographs were beautiful portraits of early life. These techniques were very slow for photographers and dangerous as the mixing of mercury was too toxic. Furthermore the photographer  George Eastman and his company Kodak introduced the film camera which allowed photographers to have the correct resources to capture and make fine art photography. Furthermore because of the development of photography equipment this expanded the creative thinking of photographers this is because pictorialism, romanticism and spiritual photography focused on emphasizing the beauty of photography and its subject matter, soft focus, tones and composition. During all the above happening the controversy in fine art photography was still a difficult matter as it was still not considered as an art form. A group called photo secessionist which were lead by Alfred Stieglitz publishing a book called 'Camera work' which had huge discussion on the thoughts and criticism on fine art photography. In the mid 20th centuary magnum photographs were very popular because people were very much interested in visual story telling. This was the era of photojournalism which dominated this century. The Magnum photo company were founded in 1947 and the photographers part of this company would chose there own ideas and assignments around the world to bring to attention the diversity of the world for fine art photography. People described the Magnum companies work as ' the whole story of mankind'. Lastly todays fine art photography is multidimensional and closly focusing on the world. The history of fine art has allowed photography never to be limited but seen as an endless possibility.

The photographer Keith Taylor is a close up and macro photographer who's work focuses on the beauty of nature. One example in particular is the photography of flowers which allows the idea of prettification to be shown. Keith Taylor says that it opens up a whole new world of vibrant colours and striking patterns. This is shown in his photography work this is because the vibrant colours bring out the different tones and give the photograph a realistic feel to it. His work is very inspirational for my own photography this is because the photographs he captures are ideas that I can re create and develop from. The inspiration that I gain from the photographer Keith Taylor is his composition in his photography as the way the main subject is always captured in the centre and the technique depth of field technique is used to blur the distracting images. This allows the flowers to look aesthetically appealing to its audience. His photography shows the growth that photography has been through as his work is very modern and sleek. This is because he began his photography career using Olympus SLR's which then lead to him to using digital in 2006 using the camera Canon 5D. This digital camera had a huge impact on Keith Taylor's photography because it allowed him to take greater pictures as well as them being better quality. However he still aimed to get the photograph perfect on screen this was so that for example if he was photographing a flower it would look as realistic as possible as what it looks like in real life. One of his photographs that stand out to me is the photograph shown above. This photograph uses the technique close up which is the name of my personal project. The close up technique in this photograph allows the pinks and purple colours to dazzle which makes this striking flower even more appealing. This photograph is very complex as it combines both close up and depth of field in one photograph which makes it look amazing. This flower  is captured to be so bold that my eyes instantly get drawn to the flower. This makes this photograph a success as myself as a viewer finds this photograph aesthetically sensational. Furthermore the composition of this photograph is very accurate as it doesn't cut off any of the flowers petals however allows the photograph to be tight enough to make the flower look larger than what it is. This makes this photograph very intriguing to look at. This photograph reflects the theme of fine art because it shows how beauty is all around us without us even realising. This photograph contains very aesthetically pleasing colours which is one the main reasons of fine art photography being produced.


Another photographer that has shown fine art in there photography and has influenced me is Dave Wood. Dave Wood is a Manchester based photographer. His addiction and passion became 4 years ago when he's friend gave him a Nikon camera. His skills in photography lead him to take a huge interest in macro and fine art photography which is the name of my project brief.The photographs I am intrigued and fascinate me are the water drop photographs. These photographs give a more focused and surreal take on nature and its beauty and shows how imaginative Dave Wood is. Dave wood has always said that beauty of nature will always out win man made this . In addition the photograph to the right is one of my favorite Dave wood photographs. This is because to begin with the dynamic colours in this photograph are very eye catching with makes this photograph stand out. The idea of using reflection and close up photography together is very intriguing as it creates a more intense photograph that is very unique and different to others. Furthermore this is an idea that I would like to develop and create therefore Dave wood being a big influence on my own work. Also the water drops in this photograph are so beautifully clear that it emphasizes the detail of the flowers within them. His work and especially this photograph are so simple as the photograph only involves a stem, flower and water droplets. However the framing and detail make it look so complex and difficult to shoot. Dave Wood's photography links to fine art because of his vibrant colours used and also his surreal affect of beauty with shows a different perspective on nature which will make its viewers think.

My own photography fits in with the theme of fine art this is because my work reflects the beauty of nature and focuses on bright and vibrant colours to allow my work to be very appealing and eye catching for its audience. The shoots that I have done are a location nature shoot, colouring pencils, tango cans, human eyes, sweets, food colouring shoot and video, playing cards, facial features, Christmas decorations and fruit. These ideas have all come from looking in to detail at different fine art and macro photographers and expanding on their ideas to make my work very versatile and different to theirs. My two favorite shoots were the food colouring shoot and the location nature shoot. This is because these two shoots best fit the theme of fine art and were the most exciting and fun to capture. The two photographs that I feel stood out in my food colouring shoot were the photographs below.

This photograph was taken showing the vibrant colours and striking pattern of the food colouring once it had settled in the water. This photograph reminds me of a tie dye effect and shows the two colours red and blue combining to make a very stunning and intriguing photograph. This photograph best fits in with the theme of fine art because this photograph best expresses the creativity of photography and how capturing vibrant colours allows the photograph to become very eye catching for its audience. This macro photograph has been accurately framed to allow the detail of the pattern and water effect stand out and become much clearer than not using a close up lens. This photograph is one of my favorite photographs because it is very different and aesthetically looks very surreal. The lighting in this photograph is very bright and this has been chosen and used to enhance the bold and luminous colours that appear from pouring food colouring in a tub of water. This idea was influenced by the photographer Scott Meads as his surreal water droplet photographs inspired me to use a liquid to show vibrant colour therefore I have chosen food colouring as the effect it produces is a very creative outcome. To progress from this photograph I could use another technique that I learnt before I began my close up project to show the skills I have learnt. An idea could be to do a video as this will allow the audience to see the colours combining in motion.


This photograph is also another very good example of fine art photography because it shows the beauty of nature and this is very important to express in photography. This is because nature is all around us and the detail and delicate textures it contains aren't always seen or admired enough. Therefore by capturing a close up photograph of a flower allows the audience to see these points above and create a very stunning photograph that people will find interesting to view. Furthermore the lighting in this photograph is very light and soft which allows the delicate and smooth texture of the petals to be seen much clearer and more obvious. This photograph was taken on location and is one of my first photographs I took for my personal project which shows the growth of my fine art photograph to the one above. This photograph has been very well framed as the flower is directly in the center allowing the audiences eyes to be drawn straight to the center where the bright light is. This photograph was inspired by the photographer Keith Taylor and the photograph was taken with his technique and skills in mind. I feel that this photograph came out very well and the success I gained from this photograph allowed my confidence to boost and expand my imagination more with my next shoot. Furthermore by capturing this photograph on location has allowed the natural sunlight to shine through in this photograph. This has made this photograph look aesthetically pretty and bring out the softness of the colours better than if a strong light was lighting this photograph.

In the future I can see fine art being even bigger and better. This is because the development of technology especially digital camera's will allow fine art photographers to capture more adventurous photographs that will fascinate the audience even more because of the even brighter and more detailed photograph. From exploring and capturing my own fine art photography I have realized that bright and vibrant colors are one of the main key features that shows fine art at its best. Therefore I feel that in the future fine art photography will expand on the idea of bright colors and make the photographs even more brighter and appealing. Fine art also focuses on the technique close up. The future could hold even better digital cameras that provide close up lenses that zoom more into the actual object. This will create a more detailed and intriguing outcome for example the center of a flower being shown with more quality and therefore looking more powerful as an image. Furthermore the places and objects captured will also be more adventurous in the future which will excite the audience more because they will see new for example landscapes that they cant go visit themselves therefore taking more interest into fine art photography making it an even more popular aspect of photography. The rise in excitement for this aspect of photography will then cause more future photographers to capture fine art photography making it more popular.

In conclusion fine art photography is a very artistic type of photography and shows how beautiful our world can be. Fine art photography has come a long way and developed a lot through time. This is because the first color photograph being produced by and Kodak making the first digital camera to allow fine art to show how much it has blossomed.As well as digital cameras allowing fine art photography to become more adventurous and creative by allowing photographers to travel the world. Furthermore the influences I have gained during my fine art project for example Heather angle who focused a lot on close up photography which highlighted vibrant colors brilliantly.As well as her versatile ideas gave me a lot of inspiration for my own close up photography.Overall by me choosing to photograph fine art photography focusing mostly on close up photography has allowed me to gather a better understanding on fine art. As well as myself gaining more knowledge on the aspect of photography which has allowed my photographs to grow in creativity and get better and better as my project went on.