Whether a work shows aesthetic qualities or not it is designated 'Pictorial Photography' which is a very ambiguous term. The London Salon shows pictorial photography, but it is not generally understood as an art. There is no corresponding recognition in this country. It is shown in galleries and exhibitions as an Art. In the USA photography has been openly accepted as Fine Art in certain official quarters. Dr S.D.Jouhar said when he formed the Photographic Fine Art Association at that time - "At the moment photography is not generally recognized as anything more than a craft. In the UK as recently as 1960, photography was not really recognized as a Fine Art. Holland Day, Alfred Stieglitz, and Edward Steichen were instrumental in making photography a fine art, and Stieglitz was especially notable in introducing it into museum collections. Successful attempts to make fine art photography can be traced to Victorian era practitioners such as Julia Margaret Cameron, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, Oscar Gustave Rejlander, and others. One photography historian claimed that "the earliest exponent of 'Fine Art' or composition photography was John Edwin Mayall, "who exhibited daguerrotypes illustrating the Lord's Prayer in 1851". Those decisions are just the choices the photo artist can make in the creation of their fine art photography. It is not really important if the artist chooses the manual manipulation of the image with an enlarger, burning and dodging the light as it strikes the paper and filter to control the strength of the contrast or a computer and software to have even more control of the creative process. That of the darkroom work to bring the concept to life. Then when the image is recorded the fine art concept takes another step in the process. That is only a few of the vast decisions the photo artist has the opportunity to make in the creation process there are many more to make before that shutter is opened. The angle of light the artist chooses will make the scene seem harsher or softer, more defined by shadow, or reviewed by direct light. The shutter can control the actual time the scene is recorded but slow or freezing movement in a scene. The lens can compress or expand how the scene is captured. A skilled artist has many tools at hand to make this captured scene their own. There are as many ways to accomplish this concept. It is the photo-artists job to make that capture more than what we commonly see. The camera is meant to capture a scene, whether, in stills or video, it can be the ultimate documentary device. Easy enough to say, but concept creation in photography is not really that easy. In short Fine Art, photography is about creation rather than documentation. This stands in contrast to representational photography, such as photojournalism, which provides a documentary visual account of specific subjects and events, literally representing objective reality rather than the subjective intent of the photographer and commercial photography, the primary focus of which is to advertise products or services. Then other times the concept of the final image changes while the photo artist is looking through the viewfinder. That conception often happens months or even years before the shutter is pressed. I think the goal of fine-art photography should be to capture a concept that will express an idea, a message, or an emotion that the artist-photographer felt when the idea for the photo was conceived. "Fine art photography is photography created in line with the vision of the photographer as an artist using photography as a medium for creative expression." Really?
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