On Tue, 09 Nov 2004 01:21:45 GMT, "Nicholas O. Lindan"
wrote:

"Roger" wrote

Still, art is not determined by the medium, but by the artist.

Er, the viewer, wouldn't you say?

Owning a camera does not make the photographer an artist just as
owning a paint brush doe not make me an artist. The vast majority of
photographers are not artists.

The vast majority of working painters are not artists, they are
'commercial artists'.

The vast majority of working photographers are not artists, again,
'commercial photographers'.

Not to say that they are not artists when they are not being 'commercial'.

Home photos are art in the same way a 5-year olds scribbles are art.
For home photos as art see

http://www.moderna.org/lookatme/pages/index/01-30.html

and a whole host of other sites.

J. Joyce defined the end stage of art as 'causing aesthetic
arrest in the viewer'.

He called it pornography if the image created a desire to
posses the object shown.

You mean I gotta burn all my aviation photo collection before I get
arrested? They certainly create a desire in me to posses most of the
subjects.

OTOH I've seen a number of photos that had been labeled porno that did
not give me even the slightest desire to posses the subject. Maybe
run the other way though. That reminds me of one night when leaving
a bar... er never mind.

Roger