PatrickPhotos

A personal photography project

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© 2013 – 2026
All photographs on this site are subject to © Copyright and any unauthorised copying or use is prohibited.

  • What is art?

    Does making an image Black & White automatically make it art?

    Black & White high heel court shoes

    Here is the picture in full colour.

    Silver high heel court shoes

    So does converting a full colour picture of a subject into black and white convert it into art? What is art anyway?

    Now that there is easy access to digital cameras and the internet there are more images being created than ever before. In the past you would have had to have access to a darkroom but today that is no longer the case.

    With such abundance of material on show, it is inevitable that the poor quality image that used to live in a shoe box is now for all the world to see.

    As for this site, my aim is to be the best of the best. Consistently high quality is what separates photographers who just have the tools and those who deserve to be called professional.

    Will my work be art? You can be the judge of that.

  • Rankin v Freud

    rankin-freud-book-covers

    I make no apologies for another review in a short space of time as this is part of the process of understanding what I want to achieve out of my work.

    This review is of the work of the photographer Rankin and the artist Lucian Freud. A quick glance of these two books and there is no question they are at the opposite poles of the creative spectrum.

    Rankin has a big part of his background in the fashion world, with many of the sitters of his pictures in his book Visually Hungry either professional models or people who are in the limelight.

    While Freud’s paintings in the National Portrait Gallery catalogue of his exhibition in 2012, are of ordinary people. Some of whom are now household names from being one of his sitters.

    Looking at some of the images in Rankin’s book, I did wonder if they had post production work on a computer applied to them. There is one piece which had notes on one side of the double page spread marking the “imperfections” of the portraits and on the other side the images post production, which was fairly obvious that it had. But it did cross my mind for some of the others.

    The One Dress series of images by Rankin is a clever idea with all his different sitters wearing the same dress. However the dress was worn by people who were very comfortable in clothing they were asked to put on. The oldest model still had the looks of a professional and for all I know may well have been.

    Freud’s work on the other hand is at a first look far from the conventional understanding of beauty and glamour. There is something raw about his paintings and I think the artist has over-accentuated every nook and cranny of his sitter’s body. In the annex to the book there is a photograph of Sue Tilley who is the sitter in Benefits Supervisor Sleeping and the difference between the picture and the painting is quite stark. But the more you look at Freud’s work the more you appreciate the light that is falling on his subject.

    What both sets of books have in common is that it takes real skill to make a portrait. It is easy to take a snapshot of someone’s face but to add that extra depth, to make you pause and think what is going on with this person’s life is what put Rankin and Freud at the top of their respected fields.

    These two books are inspiring but would I want to follow either of these creative paths? They are at the extremes of idealism and realism and I do wonder if there is a middle path.

  • The Naked Nude by Frances Borzello

    The-Naked-Nude

    Walking around a Waterstones bookshop I came across The Naked Nude by Frances Borzello, published by Thames & Hudson. It was by pure chance that I came across this book and it has been a joy to read.

    It covers the history of the nude as a form of art. The book does it in a way that is far from a dry chronological review but it describes how earlier works have influenced the artists through time. There is a perfect balance of showcasing pieces reflecting society at the time they were created, which in some cases challenging our views.

    What interested me, in the book as a photographer, was that both in the art world and in the photographic world obtaining an image of the perfect body was the ultimate goal. How artists would get the curves in all the right places without a blemish in sight. Today it is easy for the photographer to do the same with the aid of a computer.

    From the pages of fashion magazines to photographers offering intimidate portrait services often referred to as boudoir, we are constantly being offered the ideal image.

    Borzello argues that many artists have tried to break free from the convention of perfection. Especially so since the invention of photography. Instead they have tried to reach some form of realism. A prime example being the BP Portrait Award 2012 winner Aleah Chapin with the work Auntie.

    Has photography in the UK got to the stage where realism over takes perfection? My opinion is that we are far from that. The book even sets a case where photography has taken over the medium of choice for the image of the perfect body.

    In my previous post I was surprised that there were photographers who did not want to take images of older models. I’m not sure why I should have been, with many online portfolios predominantly filled with younger subjects.

    If in the western world there is an ever increasing older population, why are the images around us stuck at the “perfect” age?

    I’m so glad that I did come across this in a bookshop, as it has made me re-think the way I look at art now. I’m sure I would not have found this book just going online. I want to keep bookshops in the high streets and the only way for that to happen is if I spend my money in them.