Photography Class Assignment Final: Work of Art

This assignment is the final assignment for the class. The professor simply stated to create a photograph that we think is a work of art. We are then to write an artist statement about what we think art is and how our photograph fits the parameters of the definition that we gave art. You can click on any of the images to view them at full size. Below is the artist statement.

It is very difficult to define exactly what art is. Depending on the medium of the work, art can have very different meanings. Therefore, to find a common point as to what defines art, I’ve come to the conclusion that art is something that is able to stimulate the emotions and the cognitions of people. Art does not even have to be aesthetically pleasing to the senses since grotesque artwork is a form of art in itself. For photography in particular, there are many different kinds of photographs that can be defined as a work of art. Elements of a photograph of art can include repetitive patterns or rhythms in forms of shape or color as well as just being able to capture a moment in time that may not ever happen again whether it is a certain human expression, a natural phenomenon, or just a particular lighting on a subject. Sometimes you can go out and create a photograph while other times the photograph presents itself to you and all you have to do is just capture it.

This assignment was particularly difficult since I did not know which photograph I should use of the ones that I took. On one hand, I have a photograph that is simply just a repetition of many rectangles composed in such a way with the natural sunlight that also creates opposites within the photograph. This inspired me to crop the photos so that they fit the proportions of golden rectangles. The other photograph is of a sunset that worked beautifully with the clouds. There are no repetitive patterns in this particular photograph. Instead, there are many rhythmic waves created by the clouds and accentuated by the colors of the sunset—signifying that this is not the work of man, but it is nature.

While debating between the two photographs for a while, I remembered that a photograph was simply light that has been captured and presented in a way so that we can see what the light was like at that particular moment. This then led me to remember that when all the wavelengths of light are combined together, it creates white. Everything visible is simply just a reflection or diffraction of light—including works of art that appeal to our visual sense. Therefore, in order to capture the moment of all works of art into one photograph, I stored all of the reflected light (including light that is reflected from deep space) from all works of art and ended up with white light.

I have included all three photographs for this assignment because I have already printed them out from my printer and would like to present them anyway since they are all works of art.

Grade: 4.0