“Putting aside commercial photography where the reason to produce is clear; when talking about the artistic side of photography the reason to produce has to come from within doesn't it? And not from some external definition.”
Now that’s a bit of a doubtful premise, to say the least!
Unless I misunderstand, what on Earth do you imagine drives the better commercial shooters to start in the business if not the wish, the very need to make pictures, to express their artistic nature? Yes, I accept that there are also those for whom a toilet is as good as a palace (if I may quote my late father-in-law describe his thoughts on surveying, his business) but then that holds for pretty well all the things that man can do. The ‘artistic’ side of photography is all there is in photography that makes it worth doing at all; I find it difficult to separate the artistic concept from commerce as if only the non-commercial practitioners hold the key to it; on the contrary, it’s the commercial world that puts the higher demands on artistic ability – that’s what they pay you to supply, to bring to life their ideas…
The so-called art world has another agenda. There, the way to success is clearly to create a myth, a secret society of values that, somehow, only the very rich in need of spreading financial risk is able to comprehend.
For my buck, the working pro is probably the more honest, the more inclined to produce a realistic or more genuine form of artistic endeavour, if only because more people have to be swayed by it. A democracy of artistic measure, if you will, but not, I hope, a lowest common denominator!
I’ve just watched another docu, this time one on grizzly bears in the Cascades. Looking at it on BBC HD, on a fairly large screen and seated at the unusual (for me) distance of around four feet from it, the landscape photography (motion) was fascinating and so detailed. I think I came to believe, then, that the secret of landscape photography isn’t to be found in stills, that it requires the dimension of motion to make it truly impressive.
Now, that sort of filming is a remarkable marriage of art and commercial enterprise.
Rob C