This article doesn't target Photoshop but the muddle that comes from so many people tweaking photos in Photoshop and then calling the results "digital art". Email Article Print Article Bookmark RSS Related Content:   Artist Finances   Websites for Artists   Copywright Laws for Artists   Create Your Blog

Actually, the article deals with a very fascinating theoretical issue. I'm not targeting Photoshop but the muddle that comes from so many people tweaking photos in Photoshop and then calling the results "digital art." (I argue that you have to do more than tweak; you have to transform that photo.)

Basically, Photoshop has become the omnipresent tail that wags the beautiful digital dog.

This is not just a theoretical issue. Curators across the country are arguing over what constitutes "photography," "prints," and "digital art." A few days before my article went live, I got an email from an art show I had entered. They had decided to merge these three categories!

Why????? Because, as Keith Yingling, Director of Communications for A.J.A.S, explained in an earnest reply to my protest: "We had the best intentions in mind when we decided on a separate digital art category, but then questions started to seep into the process, controversy flared, emails were exchanged between the staff. To bring order out of an imbalance of opinion we decided for the Fall exhibition to bring Digital and Printmaking under the Photographic umbrella. We recognize this as a short term fix, and I can assure you that outstanding digital art entries will be accepted as digital art but within the Photo category for, hopefully, this one time until everyone agrees on the ground rules."

CONTROVERSY FLARED!!!!! That's my favorite part.

The director went on: "We plan to host in October an email discussion group among some of the top digital artists in the U.S. and China. I invite you to be a part of this group...Several college/university professors on our board will spearhead the discussion...The end result will be, hopefully, a statement of rules governing what constitutes photography, digital art, and printmaking."

Rules????? I'm not optimistic because the middle territory (where a photo is drastically manipulated but still obviously photographic in nature) will always be a problem. Never mind. I'm honored to be part of this quest and I'll report the results in this column.

Here's where we are today: the great majority of "photographs" start in a digital camera, are touched up in Photoshop, and output on a digital printer. I say, call these puppies photographs. But sometimes the artists themselves are genuinely confused about what label to use--after all, there's a lot of digital going on there. The problem gets gnarlier when the "photograph" mutates into something quite different from the starting photograph. What is that thing?!

Personally, I'm happy to be far removed from this problem. I decided early on that I would use no photographs or scanned materials; I'd start with a blank screen. Recently a curator from an art center visited my studio to discuss my approach. She too was struggling with how to define categories for an upcoming event. "Well," she announced, "why don't we just make that our boundary? The artists have to start with a blank screen." Because, I said, not that many digital artists are starting with a blank screen. Maybe in a few years, the common practice might swing that way. But right now we've got all kinds of limbo!!!!!

I know one "photographer" who doesn't even use a camera. He uses a scanner as his camera. So his work is surely digital, 100% digital But it looks photographic and he calls it "photography." Are you going to say it's not?

More from this author:

• MAX your c*r*e*a*t*i*v*i*t*y

About the art shown at top:
Title: New Landscape Three
Trying to do landscape in a new way. You can see sky, an horizon, some marsh maybe, and different kinds of terrain. But there is a feeling of unreality as if you are dreaming this landscape. (More work can be seen at PRICE.MYEXPOSE.COM)

American Dreams by Bruce Price is available from Permanent Press.