Day 13 13/365 What is art?

I had some interesting discussions with a photographer friend today. We were at a couple of photography exhibits here in Chicago. The question, a rather obvious one, came up: is this photograph documentary or is it art?  Well this is a huge question. At times we know the intention of the photographer and in some of the cases that we observed, it was clearly documentary, and in one photographer's mind, archeological. Still, that does not remove the possibility that a photograph purposely taken for documentary or archeological purposes, cannot also be considered art. Does the fact that a photographer decides to create an HDR photo from several single frames make that resulting photo art? What if the photographer decides that post production will result in a better image if it is cast in B&W?  Is that a documentary or an artistic decision?


Here are a couple of photos taken today.  There are hundreds of thousands of photos like this one on Flickr. Does this qualify as art?  Or is it documentary?  I'll tell you one thing: my eye caught the balance and I grabbed the opportunity. 

f7.1   1/20sec  ISO 400  no flash  WB Auto  FL  36mm

The next two photos are HDR photos.  The first was taken through a window inside the Art Institute. Looking carefully you can see a reflection of the portrait image seen at the north end of the photo. I doubt this reflection would have been seen without HDR.  Is it art?  The second photo was taken as I was hurrying to catch the train home.  But as I passed the alley the color of the doors above at the end caught my eye.  I was just interested in what was there. A bit of me thought: art. But mostly I was just taking the shot.

HDR image   ISO 400   FL 24mm

HDR image   ISO 400   FL 24mm