Postcard Versus Fine Art
As a nature photographer I am often asked, What is the difference between nature photography and fine art nature photography? What separates my prints from the postcards that you buy at the tourist shop? Where is the line between framed fine art prints and landscape photos on the glossy pages of a travel magazine?
Well, I often wonder that same thing myself!
Yet, when I think of the care that fine art photographers put into their work, their attention to detail and their exacting representation of the wild world… I am certain that there really is a difference between fine art and nature photography.
I think one of the main differences is the sense of wildness that a fine art print imparts. A fine art photographer makes it his or her job to put the viewer in touch with all that is wild—to put you close to the daring and unpretentious world. These are the photos that you frame and hang on your wall because they give you a palpable feeling of grandeur, one that connects you directly to the immense and raw world around you.
Rather than simply recording a landscape, or imparting the simplest kind of beauty, fine art nature photography depicts the world as it really is—rich, dangerous, inspiring, tumultuous, and untamable.
Fine art photography carries you to the place where the photographer—camera in hand—found his calling.
What are your thoughts on the difference between nature photography and fine art photography?
