Porn or Art?

[Oldbearchris]

It's hard to be original. However, I would certainly value the pursuit of an individual style.
There some genres that aspire to be art, but lack originality. How about all those Lara Jade wannabees? They purport to be very arty farty, but most are just clones.
I kind of give up on the originality side, and take street photos as a way of grabbing fragments of what I see. Can't see much art in this, I just like capturing the moment.
Does anyone feel that they produce art? If so, can you say what makes it artistic?

[AndyStevens]

I think I've produced art - and I'm using complete strangers buying prints as a guide. No bragging or anything intended just if people like your work enough to hang it on a wall it must/could be art?

And I'd say a lot of others on here produce art too - some great stuff I'd be proud of!!

[m1cdq]

I do a lot of photography in erotic art/porn whatever you want to call it. I would call that photo porn.

If it was taken in a posed scene ie on a bed maybe some underware or an S&M scene I would go for erotic.

But to me its just an Exhibisionist photo like many taken on world wide wifes or my ex girlfriend.or any one of the hundreds of adult dating sites. so its nothing special

[karenoliver]

Originally Posted by Oldbearchris

It's hard to be original. However, I would certainly value the pursuit of an individual style.

The most annoying thing is spending 3 yrs photographing something thinking you are doing some original work then you buy a book and a photographer ( Stephen Gill) only has 15 flippin pages of the same thing! I was photographing signs from the back ignoring the text on the front and he did the same thing. I'm just wondering when he did his or did I beat him to it? To be honest I don't think it even matters. The only original work would be self-portrait or your own family or street shots that are moments in life never to be repeated or a sunset whose cloud formation will never be the same again?

Karen

[pavman]

wow this thread sure has gone very "deep"! and some very interesting views on photography. My take is very simple the camera is a tool (technical) that a user (photographer/artist) uses to capture a moment in time. The output (image/photo) is the result of the vision/skill of the user in presenting the final product. Some people are not creative so they may copy ideas of others whilst others are extremely creative and produce fantastic images and have the "wow" factor. All good stuff but whether you are copying a style or have developed your own style all the work produced is your original work as you took the images!
They say fishing is the most popular "leisure pursuit" in the UK I would like to challenge that! In this day and age with mobile phones/cameras surely taking photographs must surpass fishing!

[KeithT]

Not many wives would allow their husbands to take such an intimate picture, let alone enter it for a competition and magazine useage where hundreds of thousands of people will view it and remark about it all over the Internet. Either they are desperate for money; very free with their morals; or just plain daft. I doubt they are plain daft, so the other two categories are more than possible. Now where's the wife....?

[Dagwood]

Originally Posted by KeithT

Now where's the wife....?

Now that's better! A touch of humour is needed after all our moralising, however correct that may be. Perhaps the photographer is having a laugh at our expense though -perhaps he's been fiddling with Photoshop. Whatever....... how about:
Daddy, where did you put my Cabbage Patch doll? or,
Has anyone seen the plasticine/playdough? or
Do you like my Emperor brand underwear?
Dagwood
ps I still prefer the Athena tennis player print!

[Forseti]

Originally Posted by Dagwood

Do you like my Emperor brand underwear?

[Oly Paul]

There's nothing artistic about it and as a photograph the lighting is lousy. Once again a image is chosen for it's controversial aspect simply to generate publicity and get people through the doors, simply a case of any publicity is good publicity if it gets bums on seats or should that be fan**es.

[SanDisk]

Depends really what you are trying to portray really, age old argument, but that example on that page isn't really either to be honest

Ooops didn't click on the full image, not really an interesting photo at all