Sunday, October 25, 2009

Heinrich Kuhn





I decided to take it back a century and talk about Heinrich Kuhn. I am taking ARH 385 20th century art right now and am really enjoying it. Although we mainly talk about painting, we have covered a few photographers. One that I stood out to me was Heinrich Kuhn. He was born in 1866 and his photographs are associated with expressionism in Germany. He and other artists experimented with new processes for developing color prints. His photographs were linked to Expressionism because of the way he flattened space and tried to create a more 2-dimentional design. He wanted to link photography with painting. His photographs have a blurry, watercolored look to them, which make them appear like they have been painted. His photographs were revolutionary and we study him today because he emphasized form over detail. He looked more towards an aesthetic quality in his prints than capturing the scene realistically and accurately. I find this refreshing. I often feel that my photographs have to be perfectly in focus, correct exposure, right lighting, etc, to make a good photograph...but sometimes they don't. Photography is more than just having the technical skills to create a moment accurately. It's about being creative, being open to new ideas, and being able to see something not present. Heinrich created some really beautiful photographs because he did just that.
What do you think it would look like to create photos with this same style, but in Photoshop?

1 comment:

  1. Good. I've always like Kuhn's work... in some ways proto-modern.

    Your comments:
    "Photography is more than just having the technical skills to create a moment accurately. It's about being creative, being open to new ideas, and being able to see something not present. "

    Good. The challenge in photography is to overcome its literal qualities... how to suggest something beyond documenting what was simply there.


    You said:

    Heinrich created some really beautiful photographs because he did just that.
    What do you think it would look like to create photos with this same style, but in Photoshop?

    It might be interesting. Possible this is something you could consider for your last project. More on that to come...

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