Of Photographs and Paintings

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About Of Photographs and Paintings

The visual art I am more familiar with is painting. So when I am taking a photograph, or working on it, I am very often inspired by a painting I like. For instance, the composition of this photograph of the statue of Alison Lapper Pregnant is inspired by Tiziano’s Pala Pesaro, with a red flag providing balance for the image of the Virgin. In elaborating this image of Chiesa di Santo Spirito in Florence, I tried to stress the flat colouring of the church surface and of the sky – I like very much the flat colouring technique in painting, as in late Manet, the Nabis, or Hopper’s sunlit walls.

Of course I am also inspired by photographers proper, from Capa and Cartier-Bresson to many a Flickr colleague! It is just that rather often the main influence for a photo I take happens to come from painting. So if you share the influence, even occasionally, please join this group! In a perfect world, photos posted to the group should contain a suitable description; better still, when you post a photo start a thread describing what you had in mind when you took or elaborated it, or include your photo in one of the running threads. I have started a couple of threads on the two photos above as examples.

Please note that this group is not meant for high pass images, or images that have been made to look like they were paintings or drawings