Is Photography Art?

    Interestingly, many who ask this question are themselves, artists. Some feel that a photographer only has to press a button to produce his images while a painter or sculptor spends many hours to create their artwork. While it may be true that photographs take less time to make than some other types of artistic media, it would be naive to suggest that the time spent on a project is what would qualify it as art or not.
   Actually, photographers spend a lot of time making their images. Effort, time and expense is required to search for a particular subject, experiment with composition and camera settings and wait for perfect light and weather. Learning and experimenting with different ways to process images takes time and money. A lot more is involved than pressing a button. But in reality, the time spent on creating something means very little
   One dictionary defined 'art' as "human creativity or skill". One of the definitions of an 'artist' was "one who does anything well". If we agree with these simple definitions, art is everywhere in many forms. It is different things to different people. You can use a piano, brush, computer, chainsaw, chisel, or even a camera. If we find it appealing or beautiful then it's probably art.....to us.
   The photograph below was taken in an old 'ghost town', Sharples, Alberta at sunset. Unfortunately, the sky was very boring. I liked my subject and composition but I wouldn't hang it on a wall. In post I played around with textures and filters and came up with this image. Just trying to make art ;)