What is Simplicity?
February 17, 2010 5 Comments
A recent blog post by a photographer friend talked about achieving simplicity, which I believe is a meaningful thing to strive for in art. Many photographers today use a dizzying array of post-processing tools and sexy filtering software to achieve an image that may be visually described as “simple.” My immediate reaction is that is NOT what simplicity is about to me.
I avoid heavy manipulation of images because I am Thoreau-like in my lifestyle. I like minimalism of effort not just appearance. I don’t want to live tied to the computer. This snow image appealed to me because it is profoundly simple with virtually no intervention. Appealing as shot, I chose one simple crop and a tiny levels correction to remove a color cast. The snow in shade already had this blue appearance.
I have watched digital photography and tools and toys evolve to a point where you can make the incredibly ho-hum into a sublime work of art. I am simultaneously intrigued and put off. HDR imagery to me already appears cliched. To me, beauty is in the inherent simplicity of the image as shot.
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There is room for both, in my humble opinion. Playing is part of being creative. Digital manipulation, used judiciously, is just another tool in the artists toolbox.
I too feel like I am cheating a bit when manipulating, but it does reinvent some imagery; sometime to an image more close to my imagination of the photo. I am considering therapy to get over my guilt.
But a purist image is admirable.
simplicity indeed.
it has a calming feel to it
Anita, I agree that there is room for both. I was just struck by the discussion on simplicity in my friend’s blog considering the levels of complexity he goes to on his images. I consider digital art to be a different category of work.
The blues are so lovely. I love abstracts like this featuring line. Well done!
This is a lovely image…but I disagree that HDR has become a cliche…there is a great deal of very creative HDR being done and while many images fall into that ‘cliche’ category, many do not.