What exactly constitutes "Photo-art"?
When is an image "Photo-art" and not "just art"?
When is a photo "just a photo" and not "photo-art"?

If this seems like a stupid question, feel free to shoot me down :-) I'm just trying to get a feel of the subject as a new (and excited) member...

/Bimmer

Hi Bimmer,
Take a look at the photo Art section and you should begin to get an idea. Photo Art is your view/interpretation of a photo. One man's art is another man's polaroid. It's your chance to express yourself.
Debbie

Hi Bimmer,

First, let me say welcome to RetouchPro! :D

You ask a very interesting question. I don't think there is a "formal" definition of Photo-Art. I've been trying to write up my definition for the past 20 minutes and am having a difficult time putting my thoughts into words. So, I'll keep thinking about it and try to write something that makes sense later.

In general though, Photo-Art uses a photograph as a starting point and branches out to create a new "interpretation" of the photo. I view the "just a photo" as the starting point, though even that gets messy when you think about retouching a photo to improve the color balance/saturation and sharpness. I would still consider that "just a photo", but taken to extremes, I might consider it "Photo-Art". As far as "just art", I think that encompasses a whole range of mediums, so both "just photos" and "Photo-Art" fall under the category "art" to me.

If I try to say anything more, I'm going to confuse myself. ;)

Jeanie

I'll give it a shot.

Photo-art begins with a photograph, and then tries to move that photo to a place that duplicates or approches the look of a natural medium, or at least shares some of the nonphotographic characteristics of natural media. And it is not simply an interpretation of a photo, because I don't think anyone would consider a desaturation or a color correction to be photo art.

Chuck

I think you'll find that's an art-photo.

:D

Gee... Thanx for all the replys... That really cleared things up... umm... or not... :)

But really... It's great to see that I'm not the only one who finds the borders a little blurry ...

I guess in the end it doesn't really matter... What's important is that I have found this Excellent community in which to learn, share experiences and discuss all things photoish or artzy...

Happy New Year everyone!

What's the difference between retouching, image manipulation and photo-art? The moderator at one of the forums sent me an email where they were irritated that I had posted pictures of manipulated photos and had put them in the manipulation, restoration, retouching forum instead of here. To me, they were image manipulation so I didn't understand what the big deal was?