When we think of art, I think most of us think of paint and canvas. Photography is often not elevated to the same level. I am not sure why. Perhaps it is because not everyone can set up and easel, mix paint and produce beauty, but everyone can point and shoot. Particularly nowadays when phone cameras are so good.
But as my friend and former colleague, Obie Oberholzer used to say, it is not about how good your camera is. It is something else entirely. Mick Rock, Lance Mercer and Annie Leibowitz took brilliant photos of celebrities, capturing something special. I also like Diane Arbus. Luckily for me, we live about 15 minutes’ walk away from Stockholm’s famous Fotografiska, The Contemporary Museum of Photography, Art, and Culture. Their shop is the place to go if you would like gorgeous photography to put on your walls.
Loving photography (as my blog posts frequently show), I was very interested to read about Viviam Maier, who was unknown until her photographs were found in a repossessed storage locker. Find the New Yorker article (and the photographs below) here. She really captured something more than pure reality. The colours, the juxtapositions, are beautiful.
Love her work.
Some photographers manage to capture a moment in time, and I don’t understand the fascination with paint on canvas and the ignorance behind artistic photographs being ignored. I have seen some beautiful pictures that have captured spectacular moments in time. Have you seen the bee sucking up nectar while getting pollen on it’s legs? Or the hummingbird captured at the moment of sucking nectar from a flower? These are only some of the amazing close up pictures I have seen viewed as art but have been unable to find them online.
It’s true that photography doesn’t get the same appreciation as paintings. What I find truly sad is when artists die in complete obscurity and then become famous posthumously… I never really paid attention to photographs but I think I might from now on. These pictures you shared are absolutely lovely. I love how they capture a time in history that most of us might not have witnessed.