This is a big question to me... and whenever I heard it asked before it always ended up with me upset and angry at some of the just plain stupid answers people would give. Now the steam has cleared and I'm a little older and wiser, maybe I can explain. Firstly, this isn't a new question and has been asked since Photography was invented. When I first took a photgraph at the age of six I had no idea I was an "artist". (insert a Laugh of derision here) looking at that same photo forty years later makes it seem even less like art.. its a Blurred and off centre picture of the pavement and the back of my dad's car. ( Insert " I do those" comment here.) Why I still have it, I can't explain, as even today if I am importing all the shots from a shoot into lightroom I would just delete it before it was even imported.) I,m sure you would probably do the same. But here is my reasoning for what makes this ART. Even at the age of six, I took a conscious decision at that exact moment to press the shutter button. I could have waited a minute but, I knew exactly what I was doing. Most of my childhod was spent looking at the world from two feet off the ground. I knew that this was WHAT I WANTED THE PERSON SEEING THIS PICTURE TO SEE. I grabbed it before it evaporated. I had no skill at all but, thats why you learn photography right? To learn HOW to express yourself and capture these images better? I still knew that the content was what I wanted. ( I must stop shouting) so the next time you are shooting or sorting photos after a shoot by all means delete the blurred and badly framed ones but look carefully at the world around you and there are unusual views of everything that exist only for a microsecond on the back of your eye, Why not share them? So, Is photography art? I dont know but, I know when I see it and its different to what you think is "art"... (rant over)
