Rendering №2

The headline of the article is The impact of photography on art. The article was created on May 12, 2008 and last updated on May 02, 2012. The author of the article is Shelly Mcrae. The author gives the readers a description of the impact of photography on art of painting by means of comparing both of them.

The writer states that the painters of the mid 19th century worried the camera would deprive them of an important revenue stream, portrait painting. Therefore, they added to their portraits expressionism, an element the camera as yet could not capture.

The author explains that the artist relied on sketches and skill to complete the project. It was this that allowed the artist to bring something a bit more abstract to the work. However, the camera required its subject to choose a position and hold very still for some minutes, to maintain his or her expression and stance. And the background was a permanent fixture to the final product.

The writer clarifies that artists could embellish, could create new backgrounds that would reflect the interests or status of their subjects. While, the camera could not embellish; it could only record. Yet, the camera became more than a mere recording device. Photography has become an art form in itself, thus giving artists a new medium to explore.

Further the author reports that photography, in a direct impact, compelled the painter to bring to his work the unseen life of the subject of a portrait. It may be argued that DaVinci may have had this in mind when he painted the enigmatic smile of the Mona Lisa.

Photography, though, continued to grow beyond the portrait. It could be said that landscape artists would be threatened by the likes of Ansel Adams, were not for the fact that photographers took their medium in an entirely other direction.

The author states that to capture realism is the utilitarian use of the camera, as evidenced by the countless snapshots clinging to the pages of photo albums in homes around the world. But when photography becomes art, the realism of the work is rarely central to the theme. When looking at the works of pioneering photographer such as Adams and Cunningham, viewers see sharpened contracts and juxtapositions of those things that are real; the photographs, though, put them in a new perspective.

In the author’s opinion, this adjusted realism can be far more difficult to capture on canvas. A painter who wishes to create a photographic effect must labor to hide the true nature of his medium. Photographers arrange and capture. Photographers manipulate with chemicals, or now with computers. The realism exists before the medium. Painters must create realism.

The author comes to the conclusion that the impact photography has had on art has been one of division and controversy. Some people see photography as a lesser art, others consider photography as a positive force, galvanizing the artist to try new things, new mediums, to create new realities, both from within and without.

To my mind, this article is really worth reading. Having read about such an Art How as photography, especially about its impact on the art of painting, I have learned many new things for myself about the subtleties of artistry.

Summary of The Moon and Sixpence by Maugham Somerset (1-13 Chapters)

Charles Strickland, a conventional share broker who abandons his wife and children for Paris, not dreading the tongue of scandal. Mrs Strickland asked Crabbe, a man who knows Charles Strickland for a several years, to go to Paris for the sake of removing misunderstandings and throwing light on this story. It turned out that Strickland decided to be a painter, being a forty-year old man without any special education. After this talk Crabbe went back to England and told Mrs Strickland about everything.  

My pleasure reading

Year 1 Term 1 - Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Year 1 Term 2 - Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Year 2 Term 1 - Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Year 2 Term 2 - Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling
Year 3 Term 1 - The Collector by John Fowles
Year 3 Term 6 - Mansfield Park by Jane Austen 

Rendering №1

The headline of the article is The Art of Ori Gersht. The article was published on February 22, 2013. The author of the article is Geva Kra Oz.   The purpose of the article is to give the reader some information about a fine arts photographer Ori Gersht.

The author reports that this photographer is known for his focus on historical events of violence and war. According to the text Ori Gersht was born in 1967 in Tel Aviv. He is renowned and respected as both an artist and as a professor of Photography at The University for the Creative Arts in Rochester, Kent. UK. Ori Gersht is represented by Angles Gallery in Los Angeles, CRG Gallery in New York, Mummery + Schnelle Gallery in London and Noga Gallery in Tel Aviv. In 2012, Gersht's show "History Repeating" was mounted at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and "This Storm is What We Call Progress" was shown at the Imperial War Museum in London.

The writer claims that Ori's work explores expansive themes of life, death, violence and beauty. By conjuring up images of sites with historical significance like Sarajevo and Auschwitz, the Judean Desert. The Lister Route in The Pyrenees and the Galicia region of The Ukraine. On provokes a sense of the events that once took place and presents them as symbols of emotional disturbance. These scenes may seem innocent or ordinary, but the artist lends them a context that touches on the emotional resonance of these events, evoking a sense of violence and haunted by the ghosts of war-refugees.

Nevertheless, Gersht has also produced a still life series in which he touches on the correlations between photography, technology and optical perception. All this is done at a crucial moment in time as digital technology brings great breakthroughs at the same time threatening to change the face of photography forever. Early photography history is combined with theoretical dialogue creating photographic images and films that shatter the boundaries of the genre of still life, while the artist captures the stunning yet destructive images with cutting edge technology.

Furthermore, Gersht's photographic work and films are often comparable to paintings in their display. Frames are found surrounding monitors displaying films while his photographs offer unobstructed access with no material separating the surface from the viewer. In his work Gersht often recalls Romantic portrayals of the sublime, building on past patterns in photography, from the spectacular panoramas of Andreas Gursky and Sally Mann to works by Mark Rothko and J.MW Turner.

The author states that Gersht's photographs and films evoke a meditation on life, loss, destiny and chance often using The Landscape as a motif representing a place, idea and an art historical symbol. His work hints to the catastrophic violence of events such as the French Revolution. The Spanish Civil War, the Bombing of Hiroshima and even the suicide bombs that Gersht experienced during his childhood in Israel.

The author comes to the conclusion that engaging in the difficult space of pushing the photographic camera to its limits, while working in innovative ways with film and video, truly distinguishes Ori from his counterparts. Furthermore, his highly researched aesthetic possesses an instinctive and innovative approach to the materiality of his medium and, as a result, contributes to the impact that his work has on its viewers.

Having read this article I immediately looked up the work of this photographer and I can say that his works are really impressive.