Why do we make art?

I'm getting a headache thinking about it maybe someone else his view can help me.

Currently I'm drifting on the flow that we make art as a medium to express ourself but is that the only reason why we do it, is art something only aesthetic aware beings can make and can we live without it.
If someone should ask you why do you make photos, what would you answer? (consider you hereby asked :wink

Deep Thought would most likely have said 42... most probably that's the answer though... now where is my towel.

At least partly I see it as recording daily life. Early photographs have proved invaluable to people studying the era in which they were taken, and even now we see change within months.

An example: There will soon be a new Tesco here. In order to build the supermarket a large area has been cleared, including a factory building which, while of no architectural merit whatsoever, has been a feature of the town for over thirty years. Next door to this stood the "Drill Hall". Again, it wasn't anything special but it represented a chunk of local history. Up and down the country similar halls would have been built to support volunteer soldiers, in the era before the carnage of the trenches in the 1914-18 war changed views on war and international relations forever.

Unfortunately I failed to photograph either before they ceased to exist, but there are plenty of images of both in existence for future generations. I have recorded the faded lettering on an old hotel that hasn't seen paying guests for decades (it's now a further education college) and scenes at our local railway station which, while not unusual now, will one day be proof of what sort of trains were used on this line.

Well....Let me be the second one to bite.
I take photo's for the sole purpose of satisfying myself.
If any-one else likes it. Nice to know but if not......No harm done.
Do I call it Art?? Let others be the judge on that.
What's the saying again? One man's Art is another man's Fart, right?

More important question is.....What drives me?
I'll guess I am trying to record life as I like it to be.
Not necessary 1:1 truthfully. Nature or life provides me with the raw materials and I try to shape that in to something that pleases me. And the last couple of years some people around me seem to like that also.


I happen to like still life and urban dereliction as photographic subjects. I find ...that over the years I have developed enough knowledge and skills to envisage the beauty in very simple subjects and by using the right light make/create them to little beauties.
It gives me great pleasure if in my eyes I succeed. I consider it a bonus if other people give me nice feedback on my work.

If someone should ask....Why do you take photographs ?? I wish I could say: "Because its my job and the way I make a living".

The truth however is much less complicated. I am fortunate enough to afford a hobby that lets me capture daily life as it it thrown at me.
That is enough for me, to be happy.

Me too.

Art? Who cares.

If no-one likes it - not that bothered if I got pleasure from the process. Nice to share joy but not essential but I do like it when I get a positive response.

If I show it to others and they tell my why it's not working that's great. Better than empty praise any day. I had a terrific critique on another site where the author had read a book on composition and she applied this to my photograph. It was very interesting. Didn't make it art though - just explained how to press the buttons to get a user response.

Mike

Matt thank you for your answer, it's not the way I want to go with this subject.
If it's simply for recording then everyone can do it, even google streets is a form of that but I won't call that art.

It's the same a voice recorder can be used to record someone telling a story or someone singing, then it would be art but you can also use it to record a note.
Now my question is why would someone sing to a voice recorder?

Taking an effective record of a locality or indeed documenting anything is a very great skill in my opinion - rather like writing a compelling history book. Anyone can record facts but to reach out and get the essence of an area or event is a great skill.

Of course the very first step of this skill is doing it

Mike

Martin thank you for your comment... it might get down to human nature that we make art.
If you make something to satisfy you in an aesthetic then it is art though.

Ah Mike you take a different approach to what I mean with your last comment it indeed takes skill but what is recorded does not need to be art although it's an art if you can record it so good but we aren't talking about skill here.

like Martin said what drives you to do it and I want an answer that does not involve that it takes skill or anything, but what put you too it to record it?

Stefan you're just plain wrong about documentary shots. Don McCullin? Brandt and some of his shots? Great artists that pre date photography?

Of course as always IMO only

Mike

Ah yes but those shots are aesthetic pleasing if we are just talking about recording a moment in time then a CCTV is just as good or not?

Sorry Stefan, but now I've lost you.
Finding the drive day after day to actually go out and create something that pleases you, means you develop a certain "style" or "look" which can be seen as your signature. The achievement of that signature is based on skill. The latter being a process of time and a lot of afford. To most of us it doesn't come easy. Some develop a photographic "eye", but you need the skill/know-how to be capable of reproducing that what was seen in a earlier stage.

To be able to master "photographic skills" are for a great amount the reason, pleasure is received by for-filling your goal.
Technically perfect does not imply aestheticly pleasing on default.
Only skilled photographers are able to create something that was envisaged in their mind, before the actual taking process.

Being recognized by your signature could be explained (wrongly or rightfully) as art. Who cares....
If I feel happy with what I produced and get some appreciation back in the process I am a happy person.
It will however not influence the way I like to look at my subjects.

Because I enjoy doing it!

Simplistically just to record images and stimulate memories, more thoughtfully to try to communicate to others something of what I see in a place or notice about a scene.

As the author of a travelogue I'd make the distinction between producing a guidebook or archive and writing something personal that brings to the fore the things I notice and that matter to me - a bit like Martin (Malo) above. I think if any of my photography can aspire to being called 'art,' it's because I'm trying to convey that personal perspective rather than any higher merit it might have (or more likely lack).

Stan

Martin what I mean is that I don't mean the word art as a skill but the other meaning of the word.

I like with what you're going with your comment.
The signature you talk about has in my eyes nothing to do with skill but with individuality, atleast it does not take skill to be differnt or do something your way.
The same about the photographic eye.
Now the skill to capture what you see in your mind (imaging) that's indeed art but that type of art is not the way I like to go down with this topic because we would be talking about skill then basicly.

That does not answer the question why do you take photos or make art?
Or how you put it better what drives you to take photos?

With photography it's hard to explain, instead of that use the word singing, why do you sing?

Stan why are you enjoy it?
If you can answer that one that would be great

Art is a big word, it's hard to say what's art or not.
Can nature be art in his own, I mean just you watching at a tree where the sun shines and you linking the view... is that then art?

Try this one Stefan

At present I'm struggling to do what I want to achieve - it's hard work for me , I'm just a very raw beginner .

I want to take photos that please me , and hopefully please other people that see them too.

Tonight I took in my homework to class - I was pretty happy with it . We reviewed the homework and I began to wonder if I'd understood the task correctly.

Jim out tutor was late - he sent someone else to start us off [ I'll make no comment on what we did then ] and finally Jim arrived and went quickly through the pics.

He got to one of them and called out

"Now that's what I call a Macro . Who's is it ? " - yup it was mine and so was the next one too - 2 largeish brass screws I had found this afternoon and shot.

Now his approval of what I had done gave me a huge amount of pleasure - to me that's what it's about, that's art in one of its many forms

Wrong mindset here IMO, Stefan.
To go to your example of singing. How may people sing for their pleasure as a way to express themselves? For no other reason than being happy or under the shower.

Now...how many of these people would be "by developing their singing skills" (by taking lessons) be able to surprise themselves and their surroundings because they can produce actually something that pleases themselves and others. It is after all about "emotion".
Whether taking pictures or singing...only practising your skills will enable you to get the best out of it. And...achieving that is what drives us people.
To get the best out of ourselves, whatever which area you talk about.