Asher Kelman
OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
My own understanding of "art" is related to the usage "l’art pour l’art", of the French writer, Victor Cousin. If you don't know of him that matters not. I just put it out for reference, for those who wonder what on earth I might think art means. Notwithstanding that minor point, we have real social problems here with the use of this particular 4 letter word!
It's obvious now that some among us only want to use the terms "Art" and "Artist" for the provenance of the natural wonders we have as gifts from the moment of birth. Others, (despite some obvious basic talent), eschew the word "artist" as pretentious, status that has to be conferred on them by others or else irrelevant to their simple working class status.
Still we do have interest in creative work from people all around the world, "art, for art's sake". So let's have a truce. We'll celebrate the photograph. At the same time, let's also be a welcome place to the scant few who might wish, delusional or not, to place their work in the marketplace of galleries that sell photographs.
We'd appreciate respecting some modest and self-obvious disciplines. Please help to make OPF a welcome place for all photographers. Otherwise we'd become a group of arrogant self-absorbed separate contentious factions.
So here are the rules: talk of "art", limited to three places for the scant few of us folk interested in the kind photography that might possibly be candidates for art shows or galleries:
Guest/ Features Photographers: Such as here: just don't insult them being so called, "artists". They're our guests, after all. Now for fun, Layback Cafe. Question all you want what folk think of as art. Yes, that's fine in OPF!
I myself will not discuss with anyone art outside these particular places. We put a lot of work into the forum to help each person fulfill their own personal heartfelt agenda for the photographs they're invested in. Discussing the photograph and the contents, already allows for so much!
Thanks for your support in this! Wer'e here for the photograph! Art? Leave that term for the delusional or hopeful among us!
Asher
It's obvious now that some among us only want to use the terms "Art" and "Artist" for the provenance of the natural wonders we have as gifts from the moment of birth. Others, (despite some obvious basic talent), eschew the word "artist" as pretentious, status that has to be conferred on them by others or else irrelevant to their simple working class status.
Still we do have interest in creative work from people all around the world, "art, for art's sake". So let's have a truce. We'll celebrate the photograph. At the same time, let's also be a welcome place to the scant few who might wish, delusional or not, to place their work in the marketplace of galleries that sell photographs.
We'd appreciate respecting some modest and self-obvious disciplines. Please help to make OPF a welcome place for all photographers. Otherwise we'd become a group of arrogant self-absorbed separate contentious factions.
So here are the rules: talk of "art", limited to three places for the scant few of us folk interested in the kind photography that might possibly be candidates for art shows or galleries:
- Art Theory: The Art Theory Idea Workshop, here
- Photography as Art: used in the context of making work that people who go to photographic/art shows and want to collect, show or buy, here
- NSFW: The Nude, meant for art for art's sake, not common porn, as, (albeit, imperfectly), judged by moderators, under the same rules as "Photography as Art".
Guest/ Features Photographers: Such as here: just don't insult them being so called, "artists". They're our guests, after all. Now for fun, Layback Cafe. Question all you want what folk think of as art. Yes, that's fine in OPF!
I myself will not discuss with anyone art outside these particular places. We put a lot of work into the forum to help each person fulfill their own personal heartfelt agenda for the photographs they're invested in. Discussing the photograph and the contents, already allows for so much!
Thanks for your support in this! Wer'e here for the photograph! Art? Leave that term for the delusional or hopeful among us!
Asher