I know I said I would make these posts shorter from now on, but I think we all knew that was just a promise I couldn’t keep…
As you may or may not have already known, I spent this past September through January (read: Christmas season) working as a photographer at the Sears Portrait Studio. Photography is not a medium I had ever worked in before so it was a very new experience for me. Working at Sears got me thinking quite a bit about portrait photography (naturally; it was my job) and, more broadly, the most beaten-to-death dilemma in the history of higher education: What is art?
Let me start off by saying that I’m pretty sure the photos I took were mostly NOT art. The point of the Sears Portrait Studio is to take your family/children and create a personalized product. The concept behind Sears photos is not to express what is in your soul, or make a visual statement about humanity, but rather to make the customers look picture perfect so that everyone they send holiday cards to will be super jealous of how cute their kids are. Sears photos (at least MY Sears photos) tend to take people and capture them in a uniform and commercialized way. To me, that is not art, BUT I don’t think that is true of all Sears photos or photographers.
Sometimes, when there was a lull in the Christmas rush and I could take a break from saying things like, “Let me tell you about our platinum collection,” I would ponder, “so, when IS Sears Photography art?” The short answer, I think, is: when an artist is the one doing it. Yes, I am opening up this controversial subject. What is art? What makes someone an artist? This tends to be a pretty personal question. Everyone seems to have his or her own answer and I have found that the more you study art, the less clear it becomes. Also, since I brought up this whole complex subject, I am more than willing to hear what you think is art and whom you think are artists. Please let me know if you want to contribute to this discussion!
So, according to me, Sears Portrait photographers are artists when they have gained a certain fluency in their photos. I think of making art in the same way that I think about learning a language. When you start to become fluent, you pick up on the smallest grammatical nuances but when you are a beginner you don’t understand a lot. Details are over your head, and you probably have trouble manipulating the words to create large varieties of sentences.
With art, whatever medium you work in, when you know what details to pay attention to, how to use the correct tools to make the work come out the way you want, you are able to understand what needs to be done to improve the outcome, and get the subject matter to cooperate, you have achieved fluency in that artistic medium. When you are fluent in a medium, it gives you complete control over what you create. And when you have that control, all of your choices become intentional. Intention and fluency: those are very important factors when it comes to art, I believe.
My manager at Sears, Jen, was fluent in her photography in that way. I believe that is what makes her an artist and not just another commercial portrait photographer. It was SO cool to watch her work. She had a natural sense for lighting and body positions, not to mention she has the super power to make kids do whatever she wants. On my first day out of training, I was supposed to be taking photos of a wretched four year old who wouldn’t do anything I wanted him to do and he ended up rolling around on the floor of the studio for about 25 minutes whining, “whyyyyyy do I have to dooooooo thiiiiiiiiiis?” After watching me struggle, Jen popped in and finished the photo shoot in about five minutes. She got about eight different poses from the kid, each complete with a lovely smile.
She is a child photography genius. Her work is beautiful, and I think she really is able to capture children in their playful and spirited elements. Her photos are so, so, so much more than images of kids forced into cuteness by crazy parents. When she photographs large groups, she knows just what to say to get everyone to warm up to her and she is truly able to get photos of genuine moments and connections between people. Not to mention she is completely in command of what happens in her photo studio. You can check out her work at:
Studio 7 on Facebook or
Studio 7 Blog
I never achieved that sense of fluency in my photos. I think part of the issue for me is timing. Photography is so much about timing—You use the camera to grab the image of this one moment in time. In painting, you have as much time as you need but you have to create the whole world. So, I guess you’re a photographer if you have an eye for catching the right place and the right time and you’re a painter if you spend a lot of time making the right place. Both of course require a discerning eye and a sense of aesthetics.
Though I will say that having this job made me so much more aware and appreciative of photography. I think in this age of photo shop and digital manipulation of images, people often forget what it takes to get a truly brilliant photograph and I love that sears has made me think so much more about photography as a medium.
Finally, returning to the “what is art?” question, maybe I’ll just go with the answer one artist I interned with in New York City gave me: “Art is anything anybody says it is… But that doesn’t make it good art.”
Now, I will leave you with some Sears photos from my personal collection. You may decide for yourself whether they are art or not.
These photos are of my oldest Ithaca friends and me being silly.
So, this one at least is definitely art.
Three other of my awesome Ithaca friends and I got dressed up for the most 80's photo shoot you could possibly imagine. This background is so outdated and horrible that during my staff training, Jen advised me not to tell customers is exists. Naturally when I came in for MY photo shoot, I HAD to have it.
