FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF P H O T O G R A P H Y very important knowledge I got on art Academy is to distingiush the medium For verity art is embedded in nature. He who can find it has it. i What is photography all about --&-- What is a photograph The objectivity of the moment is the very essence of photography, its contribution and at the same time its limitations. Like any other visual art medium, photography has its own and known uniqueness. The ability to fully experience the power of photography is dependent upon the purity of its use, and the same is valid for all of other visual art mediums. Many excellent works in visual art have been trashed because of misunderstanding the inherent qualities of the medium like the direction of light or perspective in paintings Photography is incapable of depicting a subject that does not exist, and is utterly mute with regard to a potential subject matter which may exist in the past or the future. A photograph cannot depict imaginary subject matter, nor can it depict things that are dreamed or hallucinated. There are many picture making processes that do not have the limitations of photography. These other picture processes depend on fabricating a picture from a description. The description can be mental, verbal, or electronic. Hand drawings and ink-jet printouts are examples of pictures generated from descriptions. The opportunity here is that anything that can be described can be pictured including unicorns and a horned moon. Photography cannot do this. The introduction of manipulation and trickery in photography is therefore merely the expression of an impotent desire to paint and is a sign that the photographer misses the medium. Consistently photographers must show an understanding and respect for nature, materials, and other visible things in front of him. Consequently he must have respect for the intelligent public; otherwise photography is only a poor excuse for an inability to do anything else. Photographers must see the subject in front of his camera as reason but not as opportunity to use the camera. Therefore, the photographer’s problem is to see clearly the limitations, and at the same time, the potential qualities of photography as a medium - to move his vision toward the common goal, which is life in all its forms. What is photography 1. Photography is analog process or art of making two-dimensional still images of objects by time limited action of light. 2. Photography is the analog process or art of producing images of objects on sensitized surface by the time limited chemical action of light, or the other forms of radiant energy (such as x-rays or gamma rays). 3. Photography is a pictorial representation of the moment in the living world in any of its form, life or dead or its connection, as two directional interaction with society for the sake of communication. Examples of photography as interaction with society are: in science as a recording of facts, in painting as an aid for perspective study, in learning books as visual presentation, in culture as an uncovering of the character or personality of a large group of people. By simply reversing the examples one can see the role society plays toward photography. 4. Fundamental properties of photography medium are: truthfulness, extreme exactness, blur, tonal range, which lies beyond the skill of human hands, and film grain. - Photography process transform three dimensional scenes into two dimensional images, which can be reconstructed back to three dimensional scenes using ones eye, nerves, and brain. - I added the word analog to the definition myself. Its place will be clear when I describe the connection between photography with artwork. - Sir John Herschel, on the 14th March 1839, coined the term photography, very carefully, with definition that will encapsulate its most fundamental qualities that distinguished it from other visual crafts. Chemical action of light, in Herschel’s definition, refer to invisible ultraviolet rays. At that time light was considered to be chemical agent with its own chemical properties, like any other chemical agent, so would alter color of chemicals. Photographers should understand the term "chemical action of light" involved in producing photograph through the key concept of the definition that photographs are generated by the impact of light rays followed by the chemical changes forming the picture, and no other source of energy is required to complete the process. -Truthfulness, in photography, refers to the scenes as they are with no tricks; conformity with fact of reality, the objectivity of the moment captured by the action of light. - in defining what is truthfulness in photography one have to keep in his mind, with an aid of logic, that (true + true = 2 x true = true). This means that one structure consisting of two truth elements, is as a whole truth. Photographers have to be careful in using this equation, for combining two different facts can produce one single fact resulting in missing the medium. Burning, dodging, or negs sandwiching will not make any problem. Selective coloring of B&W prints should be approached with extreme care. - blur refer to out of focus planes. - Some photography has no grain. It should be recognized as having a grain size that tends to zero. What is a photograph 1. A photograph is an extension of my memory on selected past moments 2. A photograph is a mirror of my soul 3. A photograph is a material object and end product of photography Even and 10000 years is just a wink of eye, 2000 years even shorter. Both of these mean nothing to me. I cannot distinguish any difference between them with years or hours. 2000 years that are coming I can measure with years and I can say it is not just a wink of eye but a long time ahead. Even one day ahead is longer than 2000 years behind. So how I can measure time that is over? for sure not with the same units as the time that is coming. If I cannot remember it is a long time ago. If I can remember but need time it is some distance behind. If can remember quickly it is just a years ago, or a days. So for me, time that is over can be measured only by degree of the memory. My best memories on far past are photographs. They make me to remember and to enjoy, to say what I did in past, to see the way of my thinking, and to make my days not to be a wink of eye. - Original photographs produced as a calotype, cyanotype, salted paper print, carbon print, silver albumen print, photogravure, platinum print, silver gelatin print, or polaroid sx-70, has distinctive characteristics that cannot be experienced through reproductions found in the pages of a book or magazine. This emphasizes the fact that a photograph has physical properties defined by the process therefore a photograph is a material object. Canadian art photography is Documentary Abstraction. This definition leads to unavoidable need of reading between the lines while looking at photographs. Canadian photographers have to accept death not as the end of life but as an extension of life, to learn to represent life not only through living it, but to find and other traces of life in death, spirituality, transformation, limitation, or disaster. Canadian photography is, in essence, philosophy far beyond the superficial recording of facts. Canadian photographers have to search for, or design and create scenes that reflect the above requirements of photography as a unique medium. A short story about art Just passing Dundas square in Downtown Toronto and noticed a south American with an old T-shirt and worn jeans that is a little big for his size, and many standing still like stand-lamps around him, and not noticing each other. Some photographers with Leicas and Nikons twisting their body for a better shot picturing him with a hope to sell it for $200 trying to draw attention on themselves from a group of people around. One young woman even found a chair and pitched herself for a day. A south American with closed eyes blows his simple multi-pipes instrument making wonderful sounds that spreads around composed into a song "When Condor Flies". I just felt all my hairs for the sound penetrated whole my skin, and when he finished I dropped 25 cents into his box. He answered with smile and started next song but unfortunately I had to go and hope to see the artist again. Visual art throughout history, starting from early cave paintings that shows activities that mattered most to humans, such as the hunt and ceremonial performances, can be traced as a constant effort of man to show his relationship to the world around him, both physical world of suns, mountains, rivers, and animals, and mysterious supernatural world of gods, spirits, and ideas. The tattoos over the body of natives of the Brazilian jungle remains on their relationship to ancestors and the tribes. The scenes shown on early Greek architecture and vases pointing us to their heroic battles and warriors, pattern on oriental rugs show a map of the Garden of Eden, painting portraits of European kings, princes, and merchants over last five hundreds of years celebrated the spiritual power valued ever since Renaissance. Tattoos, vases, rugs, and paintings is a media that connect physical, and supernatural world of ideas, is a media that carry messages our ancestors have created, messages that are transmitted through the time by artworks. Art is a bridge between different cultures separated by time and space. What time span is bigger the bridge is longer and weaker. If the bridge can stand all the challenges of the time the artwork is more close to perfection, more close to importance of ancient Egyptian art. Without such visual messages about the things we valued, the world would be even and more cold and alien place than it already is.