wat is art?

"When it comes to styles of photography I don’t specialise in any particular subject although I do have a fondness for landscapes, abstract details and dabbling with montages. I’m also quite keen on photographing the weather."



TR: So, what is art anyway?

DP: I know this probably seems rather unkind considering the title and the aim of this weblog, but it isn’t intended that way. For me, personally, I think it’s a terribly boring question — at least I think that’s the case when trying to give anything other than a technical answer.
Besides, I tend to think that there’s two questions in one there. One of the questions would be “what is art” when asked of someone who self-identifies as an artist and it would be asking them about their output and why they offer it as “art” rather than something else.

The other question would be “what is art” when asked of anyone in relation to other people’s output.

I’m not sure I really have an answer to either of those questions. I’m afraid they’re not really interesting to me. There is art I like and there are artists I like, but I don’t really worry about if their works are art or not. What matters most to me is if I like the look (or the sound) of the output. Or, in some cases, if the output speaks to me in some way.

TR: You say you don’t really fall into the “artist” category. How do you perceive your photography then?

DP: I suppose it’s not so much that I don’t fall into the “artist category” as much as I don’t really self-identify as an artist.

I guess I perceive my photography as just that: photography. I take all kinds of photographs. Some are just straight records of what was in front of me. Some are taken to try and capture how I felt when I saw something in front of me. Some are taken to make a point.

TR: What surprises you about other peoples reactions to your work?

DP: When people like the photographs that, personally, I don’t. There’s been a couple or so times when I’ve uploaded photographs to my main site or my Flickr stream as an afterthought, where I almost didn’t upload them, and they’ve turned out to be quite popular with others.

TR: Is there any subject or inspiration that you keep coming back to?

DP: The sky. Especially single objects against the sky. I’ve got a set going on RedBubble called Against the Sky which contains many images that are mostly sky and just feature a single object. It happened more by accident than design but it does seem to be a common theme that’s emerging amongst the chaos of my output.

TR: What are your personal goals in your photography?

DP: That’s easy: to keep enjoying it. To keep learning. To keep improving. To have fun.