From moonrise to sunset

We have never thought that we could or should carry around a library of our favorite fine art photographs in digital form for handy display and reference. But why aren't fine art photographs analogous to pop songs? Why doesn't it make sense to want Moonrise and Chez Mondrian and hundreds of others on my iPad or other display device so I could re-experience them repeatedly?

—From a possible way forward in the digital world.

•

Q: What do you think the function of a fine art portrait is?

A: To make a record of the photographer

Q: What do you think the function of a fine art self-portrait is?

A: To make a record of the thing photographed

—From an interesting survey about smiling in portraiture

•

I guess maybe a book is my ultimate goal. And then I read something online about how every photographer wants a book, and I was like, “Fuck, of course, that’s me.” I mean, am I really any better or different than the average person on Flickr? I don’t know.

—From a good short essay on the photographic life.

•

Later, in his studio, he turns those digital photographic images into oil paintings. Although they are realistic, they have absolutely nothing to do with photorealism, at least as defined by the bright, hard-edged, post-pop art oil and acrylic paintings of the 1960s and since.

Instead, Xie seems to be making paintings of — not based on — those original photographs. Photographic devices such as narrow depth-of-field and motion blur, familiar to us from about a billion contemporary journalistic and advertising photographs, are translated into creamy brush strokes. The combination is extraordinary.

—From a review of a show photographers in Eugene should see.

•

Applause for the sunset is a common tradition in beaches and along the boardwalk. There’s a precise moment to do it and the impatient one that claps too soon gets disapproving looks. Families and friends gathered around the mate celebrating life’s simplest joys. Another beautiful tradition that often brings tears to the eyes of foreigners.

—From a team of photographers currently taking Uruguay by storm.