التصوير فن وجمال .. مجلة فن التصوير اللبنانية _ ع٥٢

Photography is art and beauty

How can photography be used as a tool of art and beauty?
We cannot answer this question unless we find out the answer to another question, what is art? .
No one has yet found an adequate answer.
We at least believe and feel that art is important. It is a necessary expression of civilization, and perhaps if we knew why art was important to us, we would find the solution to the mystery of life itself.

One of the meanings of art is explained as unity in diversity, and diversity in unity. The Oxford Dictionary defines a work of art as a masterful implementation of something in itself. Raskin defines it as an act of human action that organizes and forms it. Aldous Huxley says that art is the formation of something confused in its appearance. And make it a humanely organized world. John Van Pelt writes in his book, Composition Requirements and Their Application to Art. Saying: «The artwork is the ability to show the feelings or impressions that the artist aims at in all persons who are able to respond to these feelings and impressions.
H, Oziorn, in his book The Theory of Beauty, calls the word beautiful. On the organization of visual matter in a complete organic framework carried out by the artist, while Arthur Hammond calls art in his book, Pictorial Composition in Photographic Composition, as something, resulting from beauty for the purpose of enjoyment, and Sir Hoberth Clive Bell considers in his famous author, Art - as. Meaningful form. One of the poets said that. Beauty is truth and truth is beauty.

This is an expression shrouded in ambiguity, because if we try to separate them, what is the truth?
It is best defined by William Morris: Anything you find pleasure in doing is art.
None of these definitions takes us far, although they help us a little, but they raise the question, that art is a meaningful form, perhaps, but what is its significance?
In one of the books that attracts attention, but it is not known and is called, The Foundations of the Philosophy of Beauty, its three authors, S. K . Ogden and Ia. Richards and James Wood catalog the different theories of aesthetics that have emerged over the centuries. It seems that the authors have reached a general conclusion of their own, which was contained in a Chinese proverb:
When the feelings of anger, sadness, happiness and pleasure exist without being expressed or revealed, it is said that the memory then is in a state of balance, and when the feelings are raised and interacted to the extent that the memory in this case is said to be in a state of harmony, and balance is the great rule. And if there is balance with harmony, then everything will take its natural place and receive what it nourishes to grow and prosper.
In other words, art breaks down tensions, and thus symbolizes abundant life. The origin of this goes back to prehistoric times and was apparently associated with quenching hunger through hunting, food cultivation and fertility with all its rituals, and always somewhere containing a magical attribute.

We can at least say this:
A work of art in any form is a deliberate giving to a unit, a complete thing to which nothing can be added and nothing can be taken from it without spoiling the whole unit. Why do we consider art as something that has value, and why does it move something in us? In fact, you do not know exactly, at least from a mental point of view, because in the end it is related to human feelings. The depths of the human mind and the secrets of life are things that we know little about. In any case, art seems to have a property that stimulates the senses and gives life. Its origin may have been organic to the extent The outward expression of some body movements that cause a sense of enjoyment or indicate sound mental and physical health. Perhaps this calls for repeating what was said by the well-known critic Sir Herbert Reid: Our appreciation for the artist is our appreciation for a man who, with his special talents, was able to solve our emotional problems for us.

The healing balm, the enjoyment of a good state of mind, and the calming of states of tension, whether psychological or physical, which result from seeing a work of art, or more than that doing an actual work of art, in fact has a strong effect that doctors and psychologists know well. Moholy-Nagy writes:
Today, with the lack of regulation and purification of emotional sensations through the arts, ways of catharsis and expression have spread, characterized by disease, inexpressiveness, and destructive brutality. Unused energies and latent frustration in the subconscious create states of mental disorder that almost stand on the brink of insanity. Art as a form of individual expression can be a treatment by sublimating aggressive tendencies. Art refines the receptors in man and restores vitality to creative abilities.
In this way, art is considered a kind of rehabilitative treatment through which a person can restore confidence in his ability to give.
And all people are artists to some degree - at least there is a latent percentage within them - and this is not necessarily in the fine arts. There is no clear boundary between art, craftsmanship, and the ability to give. It can be applied to almost all activities, cooking, clothing, city planning, shipbuilding, human relations, and photography, but the basic laws of each artistic activity do not have a specific time. It is immutable and known on a fine piece of art all over the world and can be applied theatrically just as it is applied to a symphony, to a poem or oil painting, or to a novel in the same way it is applied to a love affair, or to a cathedral as it is applied to a photograph.

And what are these principles?
Sufficient, the work of art must be integrated, as is well known, not containing diversity and arousing tension within its complete unity in order to avoid boredom: contrast, repetition, the decisive moment in the work, balance and coherence, these are the principles that dissipate psychological tensions and thus produce works of art.
Contrast and disparity give vitality and strength to the contrast, for example between darkness and light, between a solid body and emptiness, vertical and horizontal, roughness and softness. Automated fonts and large and small fonts in basic simplicity and trimmings. Music in particular is the contrast between a soft, low voice and a loud voice. Dissonance and harmony, fast and slow movements.

And repetition in the basic elements of the artwork helps to achieve unity, and in music this is done by repeating a musical phrase that is repeated in different ways, and in architecture this is by repeating windows of one size or an interconnected system of particles.

And the center of the decisive moment or the climax is the dominant part that connects the work and to which all the parts relate, refer to it, and increase its value. In the play, this is the most dramatic moment and usually comes near the end. Or the image, the center of gravity is usually far from the center of the image and is often hidden in a clever way as a point that has a dominant effect.

And balance means balancing whether in time or space - time in the case of music and drama and space in the case of visual arts. It cannot be achieved by action alone. It is of great importance in the photographic formation, and it must be achieved in the end by means of sensitivity and instinct.

Does it feel right? The question is not, do I think its texture is correct? Are scales of depth of color and shape in their correct sizes and positions in order to make the work as a whole a balanced thing? . Cohesion depends on all the previous foundations and principles, but - the main goal or vision also depends on something more than that artist - the story he wants to convey,
The simple idea that he experienced and wanted to show. In photography this coherence must be particularly simple, and it must have a uniformity of purpose.
A good picture will have an immediate effect on the viewer, whether by drawing attention, astonishment or pleasure
Or satisfy the mood, or stir the poetic or spooky, but it is never boring.

- Photography shroud:
Through these laws or foundations are linked all the arts and this is why we hear that architecture
Called with some shyness, Frozen Music. This is why some highly sensitive people see combinations of different colors when they hear different sounds of music, and this is also why an amazing photographic image is sometimes called dramatic.

However, every medium has its ways of expressing things. And photography does not deviate from it, and if photography is similar to any other art, then it is closer to architecture and sculpture in the formal sense than any other graphic curve. Secondly, as an organization in space, that is, from the internal point of view, as a relationship between time and space, and time is implied because the individual moves around him within the spaces and discovers new relationships during his movement.

According to the first concept, photography is associated with architecture, because both are concerned with the formation of three-dimensional shapes, light and shadow, and at least composition. Form and composition have meaning both in terms of architecture or photography due to light.
Is it any wonder, then, that architecture provides the raw material for the photographer who scrutinizes and selects his work, and fine architecture is not necessary for such a photographer? Architectural engineering art can be achieved in photography in a despicable neighborhood, a crumbling wall, or a ruined place made by bombs. And a beautiful building of any age can inspire the photographer less because of the beauty inherent in it, not because of the third eye of the photographer that sees the relationships caused by the choice, perhaps under unusual lighting conditions, perhaps only parts of the building or partial details give models that the architect would not have He deliberately deliberately or realized it.. In fact, it is the chosen part or the detailed part that usually constitutes the preferred material for the photographer and can tell us about the scene as a whole, more than any general view.

And photography in black and white stands firm on its feet, with its ability to form works that have infinite dimensions that range between black and white, and this is what makes it something unique, and the art of photography that depends only on light and shadow highlights them in their dependence on each other, and thus it was possible for industrial lighting to add A lot to the possibilities of photography, and it can be said that photography means shaping with light, and light is the factor that gives flexibility to replace it, as it is what gives reality⏹
Dr . Swailem - Cairo