Creative art is anything you really want it to be, for some it’s painting, for others it’s using their camera to capture “that moment”. So, what is your choice to paint or to photograph to tell your story? There are so many factors to consider if both do indeed tell a story. Which method do we use to create the image?. The medium in which we use our creativity will be different and how we use it will depend on our own comfort zone. So are they both the same or is one better then the other?
Paintings and photography are two ways many artists have projected their visions of beauty, with paintings being the older of the two. Drawings, known as “Rock Art” were created over 40,000 years ago during the Upper Paleolithic period (Violatti 2015), whereas photography is more recent.
It is believed that during the Upper Paleolithic period art was used in small gatherings in a social context, to help illustrate their creativity within the group. It also demonstrated that they had a passion for sharing knowledge, expressing feelings, and transmitting cultural information to later generations. In addition, it may have been used as an indication of securing their personal boundaries ( Khan Academy, ND: Violatti, 2015).
There are also other various hypotheses as to why these drawings were made: some art critics likened them to a religious statement, such as shamanism; symbolic reasons that may have influenced how communication took place; to religious reason; others to inform good food sources (Blumberg, Cotts, 2015; Pina-Dacier, 2015).
Another hypotheses is to try and gain trust, the belief behind this suggests that if someone took the time and effort to create these drawings in the first place, then they could be trusted. This was particularly significant at that time, since as man developed so did the need to trade, which meant you had to gain respect and trust ( Stearns et al, 2016). The population was scattered and groups would gather periodically, meaning no-one got to know each other in a “professional” manner. Thereby, spending time creating art work showed you had commitment (Stearns et al, 2016).
I like to think they drew on the walls to let the family know where they had gone, by using it as a message board.
The term “History Painting” was introduced by the French Royal Academy in the seventeenth century. It was initially used to describe a painting where the artist was influenced by the Ancient Greeks or Romans when they produced their work.
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| © NEW ND |
This was usually monochromatic and sparse, since it was not the intention to be reproduced exactly. The main objective was to try and evoke an emotion to capture the harmony of nature (NEW, ND). The oldest known classical Chinese landscape painting is by Zhan Ziqian of the Sui Dynasty (581–618), Strolling About In Spring in which the mountains are arranged to show perspective
(NEW,ND).
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| © NEW ND |
The history of photography does not stretch as far back as the ice age and in comparison, it is relatively new, but it does date back to the 8th century, when Alchemist, Jabir ibn Hayyan, discovered that silver nitrate darkened in the light. In the 16th Century a German scholar, Georg Fabricius discovered that by adding a solution of salt and silver nitrate to certain ores, the metal would go from white to black when exposed to sunlight (Barnes, 2010).
It was in the early 1700s that Johann Heinrich Schulze used a method called “photography without a camera” when he took the earlier findings forward and used the suns rays to imprint images onto paper.
This is how he would record his experiments:
“I covered the glass with dark material, exposing a little part for the free entry of light. Thus I often wrote names and whole sentences on paper and carefully cut away the inked parts with a sharp knife. I struck the paper thus perforated on the glass with wax. It was not long before the sun's rays, where they hit the glass through the cut-out parts of the paper, wrote each word or sentence on the chalk precipitate so exactly and distinctly that many who were curious about the experiment but ignorant of its nature took occasion to attribute the thing to some sort of trick.” (Leggat, 2002)
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| The Plate © Leggat |
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| The Photo © Leggat |
It was only in the 1820s that photography really came into its own, when Nicéphore Niépce successfully captured images known as heliography.
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| View from a window at Le Gras © Leggat |
The paper was placed face down on the plate, that was coated with the asphaltum powder. Light passing through the paper over several hours would harden the solution.
The image would be exposed when the plate was washed with oil of lavender and only the hardened areas remained. The paper was waxed so the photo would be more translucent.This method was time consuming, and you would not always know if you got this right (Leggat, 2002). The camera we use today has gone through dramatic changes and we have moved from using a plate, to film and now we capture our images digitally.
Equally the mediums used to create art have also advanced during the ages. From using dirt or charcoal that would be mixed with spit or animal fat to create a pigment (WebExhibits, 2001). This pigment would stick to the walls because it would become trapped within the porous structure, equally the binding media dried and cohered the colour to the wall.
Today, the pigment is less crude, and our watercolour pigments are held together by a water soluble binder, along with additives and solvent (WebExhibits, 2001).
The way we capture and choose the subject can vary by each individual, and the mediums to facilitate artistic expression are vastly different, but is the creativity the same? It is said that photography is a dialogue between the artist and the external world. For some it is to connect or reconnect with their surroundings to explore and record events. The same can be said for painters, such as Thomas Cole, Manet, Van Gogh and Monet all who both painted to connect to their surroundings and record changes.
Rodin, as well as Vermeer were both interested in the camera, but for different reasons. Rodin would frequently ask a photographer to record his work. He would frequently retouch the photo of his sculptures in pencil. This helped him to recall the changes he wanted to make and help fix these ideas in his mind before reworking the plasters (Musee Rodin ND).
Whilst Rodin was keen on photography, he did not view it as an art form and famously said “It’s the artist who tells the truth and the photographer who lies”.
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| © M Bucknall |
But, is this true? Does a painter tell the truth and a photographer lie? It could be argued that both do lie and both could be telling the truth. In my view both can create a different illusion of what they see and both are artists. Although not everyone will agree.
The Photographic Society of London, established in 1853, had one of its members complain that using a camera was “too literal to compete with works of art" because it was unable to "elevate the imagination” (Prodger, 2012).
Steven Assael, a New York based painter is anti-photography and discredits anyone using a photo to create a painting. He stated:
“It just has to be understood that there are dramatic differences between how the camera looks at and experiences the world and how we see it. A camera records a scene in a split second, whereas we see movement over time. We synthesise our observations, and the resulting painting is the culmination of many moments. We selectively choose details and, in that selection process, meaning and surprises happen, giving the artwork a life of its own.”
It is interesting that he made no reference to the use of long exposure techniques, and one can only presume that Assael chose to ignore this method of capturing a scene over time.
A long exposure can help to create a picture and show it in a different way to how we would view it. When we see things differently, it naturally fascinates us and that’s a significant factor in creating a compelling image.
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| Lake Bled using a long exposure technique © M Bucknall |
The photo above was created by using a long exposure technique where the lens shutter of the camera is left open for a period of time, this photo was created using a 45 seconds shutter speed. This will allow more light to enter the camera, it will also produce a milky effect on the water and cloud formation.
It wasn’t until Andreas Gursky's Rhine II photograph sold for £2.7m in 2011 that made artists sit up and think more about photography and is it art?
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| © A Gursky's Rhine II photo |
The National Gallery seemed to give photographers a seal of approval by holding a major exhibition in 2012 Seduced by Art: Photography Past and Present.
So, on this basis and with more galleries accepting photography as art, we need to look at how paintings and photography are produced, do they use the same approaches, and in some respects they do. Some pioneering photographers recognised straight away that photographs, like paintings, can be artificially constructed portrayals: Each subject had to be composed, lit and produced. This means that there is one common denominator - you have to have a subject to photograph and to paint. The one exception to this, is that you can paint anything from your imagination, but you cannot create a photograph from your imagination. You cannot make something up, you are just going to recreate what is there.
In both photography and paintings you need composition, you need tone, along with a focal point. There is the need to understand how to use light and dark otherwise the scene will not be dramatic. In photography to achieve this you have an aperture value, so the camera lens is adjusted to the light. In painting the aperture value is the painter who will use their eye to change the contrast of light and dark within the work they are creating.
The use of tone is very important and in photography tone looks at the range of colours, the same principle will apply to painting. The tone when painting can sometimes be difficult to master, especially when you are trying to match the natural tone of an object. You have to look at and be mindful of the light to dark or dark to light. Making subtle changes can make such a difference and with painting you need to explore the colours used. With photography you can use graduation filters that can help you tone the light down and help to enhance dark areas.
Contrast is used more in post-production in photography, and it’s no different to painting, you have primary colours that you need to manipulate to create the correct balance. With photography you can achieve this by using a clarity technique that changes the contrast around the edges of objects in your photo. It can give you either a rough or smooth look to some areas of your photo and it will affect the mid-tones by adding contrast to them.
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| Monet - Sandvika Norway. An example of clarity in a painting |
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| Amsterdam. An example of using clarity in a photograpgh © M Bucknall |
In both disciplines you can manipulate the hue of the colour by increasing the saturation or luminance. In photography this is undertaken post-production using software, such as Lightroom or photoshop. In paintings this is by achieving a convincing lighting situation that is consistent and cohesive.
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Vermeer the quintessential painter of natural light
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Vermeer was probably the quintessential painter of natural light. In this painting it can be seen how he has used natural lighting from a window from the left hand side of his paintings to bring a luminance to the painting making it more vibrant.
Other techniques that can add or enhance mood is using a method of dehazing to either increase or decrease mist or fog. In comparison though its far easier to add mist to a photo post-production than it is in a painting, where you can have three main techniques (Smith 1993) that can be used such as:
- Paint wet in wet.Working with wet paint into wet paint on paper.
- Building up layers to create a moody effect. The paint must be dry before you apply another colour over it.
- Layering. Where an colour is spread very thinly over a dry underpainting gradually.
The following are examples of a photo and painting to help compare the use of these methods.
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Monet -
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| © MBucknall |
Snowy Scene - Post production using a dehazing technique . helps to enhance the moody misty look
The painter may challenge the photographer with a landscape and state only their work can be in focus from front to back. Alas, not so, it is possible to carry out a technique called “focus stacking” where multiple images are taken at different focus distances and merged thus resulting in an image with a greater depth of field than any of the individual source images.
In painting the artist can use a brush stroke to create a radial vivid blur of colour, but this can also be achieved with a camera by using a slow shutter speed that will allow a moving object to be captured in a blur of colour.
This is an example of a photo taken by an artist Swarup Chatterjee, who gave up painting to create art using his camera (Chatterjee 2017).
This is an example of a photo taken by an artist Swarup Chatterjee, who gave up painting to create art using his camera (Chatterjee 2017).
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| The Blur effect by Swarup Chatterjee |
It is also possible to create a smudged-look photograph by using a slow shutter speed combined with camera movement. Plus its great fun to experiment with this, especially when you have vertical shapes, like trees as shown below.
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| Smudge effect © M Bucknall |
You can also, create light-trails or moody scenes using a slow shutter speed.
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| Trail Lights © M Bucknall |
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| Romantic - using post production and slow shutter speed. © M Bucknall |
Whether you paint or take photos, it is clear that “Art” can help to create emotional connections by helping to form a bond between like-minded people. Those that have the ability to produce works of art may enjoy some sort of kudos, which in turn can inspire others to explore their own creativity, regardless of the object or even subject. To be creative takes time, patience and an empathy of appreciating the beauty around us. It also shows how brave a person can be by opening themselves up to ridicule from others. Putting their own personal emotional wellbeing on the line.
Whilst paintings and photographs are two very different techniques used to create work, there are some similarities in the way the painting or photograph reflects the subject matter. There has to be an element of artistic interpretation in both and you need composition, form and content. However, in art you are manipulating and drawing using paint and in photography you are manipulating the photo in post-production. The common denominator is the same for both: your skill and style with the medium, and your perception of reality in order to create an image. So, its really down to the personal preference of how you want to express your art. Albeit by painting or by camera.
References
Barnes M (2010) Shadow Catchers: Camera-less Photography. London: Merrell Publishers
Blumberg N & Cotte J (2015) Cave art. Encyclopædia Brittania: https://www.britannica.com/art/cave-painting [accessed 24.7.18]
Chatterjee S (2017) I Gave Up Painting to Do Photography, And It Shows in My Work. https://petapixel.com/2017/08/08/gave-painting-photography-shows-work/ [accessed 2.11.18]
Khan Academy (ND) Paleolithic technology, culture, and art. https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/world-history/world-history-beginnings/origin-humans-early-societies/a/paleolithic-culture-and-technology [accessed 2.11.18]
Leggat R (2002) A history of Photography: Schulze Johann Heinrich.http://www.mpritchard.com/photohistory/history/schulze.htm [accessed 31.10.18]
Lieu C (2013) Ask the art Prof: How do you achieve a luminous effect in a painting through colour and value? https://claralieu.wordpress.com/2013/04/17/ask-the-art-professor-how-do-you-achieve-a-luminous-effect-in-a-painting-through-color-and-value/ [accessed 2.11.18]
Musee Rodin (ND) Rodin and Photography: Status and use of Photography in the 19th century.http://www.musee-rodin.fr/en/resources/educational-files/rodin-and-photography#monument [accessed 1.11.18]
New World Encyclopedia (NEW) (ND) History of Chinese Art. www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/History_of_Chinese_art [accessed 2.11.18]
Pina-Dacier M (2015) Why Are These 32 Symbols Found In Ice Age Caves Across Europe?.https://digventures.com/2015/12/these-32-symbols-are-found-in-ice-age-caves-across-europe-but-what-do-they-mean/ [accessed 31.10.18]
Prodger M (2012) “Photography: is it art?: The Guardian 19th October
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2012/oct/19/photography-is-it-art [accessed 1.11.18]
Stearns, PN, Stig Sørensen ML, Frassetto M, Parker NG, Dorpalen A, Hearsey J, Lea HC, Mayne TJ, Stearns PN, (2016) History of Europe, Paleolithic Settlement, Earlist Developments. https://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-Europe/Paleolithic-settlement [accessed 31.10.18]
Violatti C (2015). The Meaning of European Upper Paleolithic Rock Art. Ancient History Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://www.ancient.eu/article/787/ [accessed 31.10.18]
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