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Photorealism was the ultimate goal of artists, until that became easy.

fsloth 9y ago
I would rephrase this as that the market demand for photorealistic portraiture decreased due to the rise of photography. The artistic merits and goals are another axis altogether from market demand, and a bit more difficult subject.
pythonaut_16 9y ago
That's true but I think part of it is also that once we achieved photorealism, we began to realize that photorealism isn't everything.
- visarga 9y ago
  I think Bouguereau managed to surpass photorealism. It's more real than real, but, from what I read, the techniques he used are forever lost. http://webneel.com/william-adolphe-bouguereau-paintings http://webneel.com/william-adolphe-bouguereau-paintings
saalweachter 9y ago
Well, there was really a bifurcation in art. Painting and drawing went for various forms of stylized representation, because competing against photographs doesn't interest most people. But you also had a new field of photography, where the focus is now composition. There is a marked difference between the photographs I take and the photographs a skilled photographer takes, even if both are realistic depictions of a scene, and the difference is, sometimes, art.
- romwell 9y ago
  All discussion aside, I see portrait photography as painting with people. That is, it's not so much about composition, as it is about using objects around you - people, nature, etc - to paint a picture instead of using paint and brushes. It's much easier than painting when the picture you see in your head is much like what the camera lens sees when you point it in a given direction. However, often there's work required to paint the picture you see in your head. With people, it's figuring out what to say to them to make them look the way you see them - to bring out the inner warmth - and to figure out how to capture in a static image what the eye sees over a stretch of time. Ultimately, with movies we've come full circle: filmmakers often resort to painting (i.e. CGI) instead of photography, because sometimes it's easier just to paint the picture one has in their minds with a graphics tablet than it is to paint it with real-world objects positioned around the camera - even if realism is the goal.

I would rephrase this as that the market demand for photorealistic portraiture decreased due to the rise of photography. The artistic merits and goals are another axis altogether from market demand, and a bit more difficult subject.

pythonaut_16 9y ago

That's true but I think part of it is also that once we achieved photorealism, we began to realize that photorealism isn't everything.

visarga 9y ago
I think Bouguereau managed to surpass photorealism. It's more real than real, but, from what I read, the techniques he used are forever lost. http://webneel.com/william-adolphe-bouguereau-paintings http://webneel.com/william-adolphe-bouguereau-paintings

saalweachter 9y ago

Well, there was really a bifurcation in art. Painting and drawing went for various forms of stylized representation, because competing against photographs doesn't interest most people. But you also had a new field of photography, where the focus is now composition. There is a marked difference between the photographs I take and the photographs a skilled photographer takes, even if both are realistic depictions of a scene, and the difference is, sometimes, art.

romwell 9y ago
All discussion aside, I see portrait photography as painting with people. That is, it's not so much about composition, as it is about using objects around you - people, nature, etc - to paint a picture instead of using paint and brushes. It's much easier than painting when the picture you see in your head is much like what the camera lens sees when you point it in a given direction. However, often there's work required to paint the picture you see in your head. With people, it's figuring out what to say to them to make them look the way you see them - to bring out the inner warmth - and to figure out how to capture in a static image what the eye sees over a stretch of time. Ultimately, with movies we've come full circle: filmmakers often resort to painting (i.e. CGI) instead of photography, because sometimes it's easier just to paint the picture one has in their minds with a graphics tablet than it is to paint it with real-world objects positioned around the camera - even if realism is the goal.