Blog about my work

Definition of Fine Art Photography

I have often noticed that many people have a wrong idea of „Fine Art“. At least that's the case in german language. To be honest i hate the term but i use it anyways.

If you ask Google Images for „Fine Art Photography“ you will mostly get portraits of humans with this matte vintage look, monochrome photos of architecture and any kind of nature photography. So what is Fine Art and which photos counts as Fine Art? The great thing is: It can be anything!

Fine Art is a genre which has no practical claim. It doesn't have to serve a purpose. It also does not have to be „beautiful“. Fine Art is created in line with the vision of the artist. The goal of Fine Art is to express an idea, a message, or an emotion. No more and no less. That sounds very abstract and that is what it should be. It makes the term so versatile. Artists use it for any kind of photography, expressionist paintings, portraits, paintings of animals, digital art and even for tattoos and hairstyles.

Fine Art photography stands in contrast to commercial photography where the primary focus is to advertise products or services. And as well to photojournalism, which provides a documentary visual account of specific subjects and events, literally representing objective reality rather than the subjective intent of the photographer.

I think it's very important for every commercial photographer to create „Fine Art“ just to be creative. When i shoot a commercial the main focus is to create a photo which fit best in the purpose of my customer. It's not so important i really like the photo. I also can't be 100% creative because i am bound to the goal of my customer. Only if you create what you like you really can be creative. And only if you can be creative your photos will become special and unique.