Lesson Info
11. A Brief History of Photography as Art
Lessons
Class Introduction
06:24 2Navigating an Ever Changing World
22:09 3Research, Plan & Execute Images
05:09 4Maintain & Manage Photographic Projects
28:56 5The World Through Art's Camera
21:55 6How Technology Improved Art's Work
19:15 7Timelapse & Video in Art's Photography
09:40 8Lenses for Different Types of Photography
08:39Drones Change the Way You Photograph The World
07:38 10Filters & Post Production in Photography
21:39 11A Brief History of Photography as Art
08:41 12Elements of Design in Photography
21:30 13How to See & Make Art in Exciting New Ways
14:26 14How to Maintain Inspiration
17:51 15How to Foster Personal Style & Distinguish Yourself
19:01 16Student Photo Critique & Edit
1:05:24Lesson Info
A Brief History of Photography as Art
This is a fun lecture for me. This is art as photography. And I go into some directions that I know most of my colleagues don't feel easy to talk about, the art. Talking about art, not me, but art, is like grabbing a greased pig. It's got really soft edges. So I'm gonna try to boil it down to make it a little bit more accessible. So as you look at this image, I love nothing more, as I work on the book Primordial, I love the big landscape, the awe-inspiring landscape. I did a book called Edge of the Earth, Corner of the Sky, and I did a book called Light on the Land. It was really dedicated to the big scale of things. I love it, I just totally love seeing that. One of my fondest memories was actually on the edge of this lake in the Chamonix Alps of France at sunset when the wind died and the rain stopped, and all of a sudden, miraculously out of a day of rain, this appeared. So these things are a part of my lifelong memories. And I just love being out in nature, of course. As you recall...
, in my first lecture I talked about camping in the forest in the mountains. And getting into those mountains. When I first started going down to Antarctica, you know, it was exotic for anybody, but in the early 1980s there wasn't a plethora, give me credit for saying that word, by the way, there wasn't a plethora of a lot of photos of Antarctica. Penguins that I got on those early trips, I was able to sell in stock until many of my colleagues kind of got down ten years later. But then if I talk about going to Antarctica, you know, people up the street, oh, yeah, we went there last year. You know, it's like wow, the world's become a small place. So I once shot a national ad for a camera manufacturer and I went to Mesa Arch out of Moab, Utah. And on the morning I was there, it was crystal clear, beautiful sunrise. I shot the ad, and I thought wow, this is a magical place. And then I went back there about ten years later. And I came upon this scene. And I'm thinking, okay, at this point in my career, I might know the instructor. So I kind of looked across the crowd. I'm not sure, I couldn't find anybody I knew, and I asked a person, who's teaching this workshop? And they answered, this is not a workshop. I said, do you guys know each other? No. You're all in a row. Yeah, we all agreed in advance that we're not gonna walk in front of the other person. I thought wow, that's really democratic. But my God, this is not what photography ought to be about. All these people showing up, standing in a line, agreeing not to walk in front of the other. Though it was really cool on one level, it was also depressing on another level. You know, the place that I had been ten years before didn't remind me of this, you know. And if you Google Mesa Arch now, there's tens of thousands of photos online of this very arch. So what I'm seeing and what I was experiencing is the fact that we now have the economic means to go to the same places and shoot the same shots. When I first went to Patagonia and I shot Mt. Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre, it was exotic, it was new. A few of my colleagues had these photos, but people thought, oh my God, where's that? Now they look at it and they go, oh, yeah, Patagonia, been there, done that. So isn't that a kind of a hollow victory, though, if all you're doing is going back to places that old guys like me did 20 years ago, but you got new technology? Is that in and of itself the reward? Do you come away rewarded? I don't know if you would. I think photography ought to move forward, evolve and be much more interesting. Yeah, get these big landscapes, but don't make that the entire reason you would go and travel, just to take the same shots that have been done over and over and over again. There's a lot of world out there, in other words. Yeah, if you Google Mt. Fitz Roy, this is what you get. Just the tip of the iceberg. So I would argue, maybe this is where you ought to go. Somewhere that nobody's gonna have this particular shot. We don't know where it is, but it's uniquely my copyright, it's my vision, and I'm gonna try to get you there in the lecture that follows. You onboard? Let's give a little brief history of time. You know, photography started, was created in the 1830s, I think it may have been 1837. And it was instantly adopted by people embedded with the troops, virtually. Here's a statement. In the longest time of human history, paintings were not considered art. Paintings were not considered as art. What were they, then? They were records of history. All the paintings early on were really biblical in theme, or of war and crusades. They were a record of what was once. Photography wasn't around back then. So when photography came onboard, it was the same thing. It was really recording historical events. So photojournalists started instantly taking the cameras out as they could, and following the troops, or great events. But they clearly saw themselves, not as artists, but as recorders of history. So that's where early photography was. Frank Hurley, had he not been there with his camera, we may not really know the extent of Shackleton's story. But through the photographs that have been rediscovered and rediscovered again. We know Shackleton's great story through the photos of Frank Hurley. Great events, historic events in our history, really are summed up in these salient photos that collectively become part of our consciousness. But photojournalism was there. And by World War II, yeah, there were a lot of photographers embedded with the troops. Okay, so that's a little bit of history, right there. And the photographers were there towards the end of the war. But it was at that period of time in history, at the end of World War II, that things changed. You know, painters that lived in Europe came to the United States. Willem De Kooning came out of Holland and came to New York, ahead of the war that was coming. Other painters came out of Europe. And the world of art came to New York. New York became the center of the art world during this period of time. The US Government hired painters, like Willem De Kooning and Jackson Pollock, to paint large-scale paintings for public view. These artists got a lot of noteriety. They were called abstract expressionists. And they influenced a whole lot of photographers working during that period of time. So photography shifted from being purely photojournalism or scientific, to being abstract and art during those years. Now I'm jumping over individual photographers that may have been artistic earlier, but in general, this is what happened. So the paintings of Jackson Pollock, profoundly effected the photographers at the time. Photographers were shooting things that were obviously abstract and more, you react on it on a subconscious level. It could be anything. You don't need to know the scale, it's irrelevant. It's whether you're responding on an artistic level from a point of view of elements of design, from my perspective, line, pattern, texture. All those elements are rolled up in some of these photos. You know, during this time Ansel Adams, whose career started during World War II and peaked in the '50s and '60s, and was very much active shooting large format in the west, and Elliot Porter was on the east. Ernest Hawes was doing the book Creation, all those things brought photography into the households of the American public and the world.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Ratings and Reviews
user-456dfb
Thank you, Art Wolfe and Creative Live for this outstanding and astounding invitation to open my eyes and mind to a new way of thinking based on classic elements of design. This set of video lectures is a rich feast for the brain and heart willing to consider change. Art explains the elements of design such as texture, line, etc., and then shows how he has applied those basic principles. He explores metaphor, ambiguity, graphic design and negative/positive space--all with eye-popping examples. Wolfe takes us through the galleries of the Impressionists, Abstractionists, and Pop Artists to show how visiting our local art museums with a photographers eye can teach us to see in new ways. I love the way he shows, for example, a Mondrian or a Jackson Pollack or a Hokusai painting and then segues beautifully into examples of his own work inspired by those greats. Never does Art lose sight of the mission he has in this series, which is to inspire serious-hearted photographers to rise to new visual heights in their own work. He has a way of seeming to say, "Look. If I can do it, you can do it. Here are my secrets--let me break them down for you." To me, it was a privilege to take this class--my brain is exploding, and I'm itching to get out and shoot! Thank you so much, Art Wolfe and the Creative Live team--you are both amazing! Sandy Brown Jensen Eugene, Oregon
JIll C.
After watching Art Wolfe's presentation for just a short while, I have an almost irresistible urge to pick up my camera and get out into the world to look for the abstracts that can make stunning images. His body of work is simply stunning, and his verbal patter is mesmerizing. He proposes to find beauty in decay, and to train our eyes to see what others overlook. This is not a technical class, and there is no discussion of gear or camera settings. I found it very inspiring, and his ideas will surely help me to overcome the lethargy that has overcome my photography hobby.
Loree
Wonderful lecture with tips and tricks of how he shoots, what gear he uses, suggestions for comp, and samples of how he processes a RAW file in LR. Art was just as awesome as I had heard he was in person. I'm a professional photographer and definitely came away with many new tips, perspectives and inspiration to see your image differently and to look closer at the less obvious scene. Thank you Art for sharing your talent, its so very much appreciated!!