Blog #82 The Purpose of Art

November 15, 2017 • Leave a Comment

What is the purpose of art? Does life imitate art or does art imitate life? What is the function of art across culture and time? These and similar big picture questions have been asked time and time again across the ages. I find it fascinating to contemplate these as they relate to my personal philosophy or style in making images.

In this week’s blog post, I will share with you a few quotations so that you may think about your own work as an artist [photographer] and perhaps come to some greater understanding or clarification on why you do what you do. Understanding the reason behind your creativity might propel you forward and give food for thought or, er, creativity, for that matter.

Read on…

I went into photography because it seemed like the perfect vehicle for commenting on the madness of today's existence.

Robert Mapplethorpe

If a day goes by without my doing something related to photography, it’s as though I’ve neglected something essential to my existence, as though I had forgotten to wake up.

Robert Mapplethorpe

Anybody can be a great photographer if they zoom in enough on what they love.

David Bailey

An artist is a man who seeks new structures in which to order and simplify his sense of the reality of life.

John Szarkowski 1966

The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.

Pablo Picasso

There is only you and your camera. The limitations in your photography are in yourself, for what we see is what we are.

Ernst Haas

I don’t have a philosophy. I have a camera.

Saul Leiter

One of the ways that I believe people express their appreciation to the rest of humanity is to make something wonderful and put it out there.

Steve Jobs

The light is always right.

jhg

Images in this blog post were made during a charitable event where a group of Harbour School students passed food out to elderly folks in the Sham Shui Po Housing Blocks during Mid-Autumn Festival Oct 2017.