One Practical Difference between Photo and Art

There are many people who testify that when they went through personally challenging times, looking at the paintings tremendously helped them sustain their life. Some of them even say that it would not be possible for them to live their lives without looking at the paintings. In contrast, I have not seen anyone testifying similar experiences about photographic works (excluding the photos of special meaning, like the photos of their family, loved ones, etc.).

Between my wife and I, I used to be more lenient to the idea of photography as a branch of art. My wife used to say that she isn't able to look at photographic works for long time. Nowadays, I am coming to agree with her. As I experience more and more artworks, it become more and more difficult to have photos in a long gaze.

A Windows 10 Lock Screen

Above is one of Windows 10 lock screens. This is a photo Microsoft proudly presents to the world users, believing that this photo will not fail to generate awe to the billions of users who will look at and relish it as they start up Windows everyday. Microsoft did their best to make this photo attractive with various dramatic effects of Photoshop. Truth to tell, however, yes I was indeed interested when I first looked at this photo. Upon encountering this photo, I scanned the subject vis-a-vis the environment to get the aesthetics and meaning out of it. After I have done so for this photo for the first time when I saw it, I never did the same when I encountered it again and again as I started up the computer everyday.

A photo is a great decoration to an otherwise text only space. It is also a great compression of and supplement to the intended message. But the linguistic layer of a photo is so shallow. Its depth seldom goes below its surface. Once you get the meaning in a photo, there is no more to explore beyond it. You don't have to dig further in a photo to learn more. Perhaps that is why I am not able to look at a photo for long.

There are many artists who practice what is known as ultra realism or hyper realism. There are many in Korea, too. Some of those artworks are artistic. It is so when the artwork is intended to represent an artistic message that cannot be achieved otherwise.

However, most of the ultra/hyper realism artworks, made for ultra/hyper realism itself, fall into vulgar imagery geared for shocks.

Morgan Freeman by Finger Painting

The above image of Morgan Freeman is not a photo, but a painting of ultra realism (the above image is from https://www.boredpanda.com/hyper-realistc-finger-painting-morgan-freeman-kyle-lambert/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic ).

This is virtually indistinguishable from a photo. While this work may draw an awe about the skills of painting to this degree of details, that is just about that. There is no depth of art in this kind of images. Indeed, I am not able to take a look at this artwork for long, even for a minute in an unbroken gaze.

A true work of art is very different from a photograph. At a first glance, an artwork is so inferior to a photo in the degree of details and the brilliance of colors that it may seem flat and uninteresting. A best example of this that I often take is Paul Cezanne. His paintings are very dull. The subject, the structure, the colors, all are dull. Cezanne lived in the southern France where one could find the brightest colors of all the places on the Earth. I often wondered why he didn't do more to make his paintings interesting.

Paul Cezanne's Estaque with Red Roofs

But as I viewed Cezanne's paintings over and over again, I now came to sense what's the aesthetics therein. It is the serenity of the subject matter as filtered through the personality of Cezanne. This feeling of serenity present in Cezanne's paintings is unique, not generated by artificial strive to make it serene but grown through Cezanne's character and style. It is totally the opposite to the shock strategy pursued by the ultra/hyper realism kinds. Even before I began to understand the aesthetics of Cezanne, it was not a problem for me to gaze at his paintings for a few minutes. After I began to understand his art, I now can hold his paintings in my sight even longer, even everyday every time I see it. And there is still something to be newly found in the painting. There, there is one practical difference between art and photo.