Page 4 - F Stop November 2017

Photography Imitating Art
By Randy O’Hara
In my editorial, I talked about how we need to start believing we are artists. At our September meeting, my assignment photo was a church in Saskatchewan, in a field all by itself. I added a stormy cloud in the background to give it some definition and contrast. Is this a photo? Is it a piece of art? There are a lot of opinions about that type of photography.
Oddly enough, I had club members that thanked me for posting that photo. And I know there were a few of our members that opposed that type of editing. So where does the art of photography fit in?
I have always liked art, not everything, but mostly landscapes, wildlife, some abstract, and yes, even nudes. In the next couple issues of f-stop, I'll cover a selection of artists that have inspired me.
Alexander Young (A.Y.) Jackson
A.Y. Jackson was born on October 3, 1882, and passed away April 5th, 1974. A.Y. was a founding member of the Group of Seven and he embraced landscape themes while working on his style. In 1914 he began to travel to Algonquin with Tom Thompson. Inspired by Thompson, Jackson soon discovered and painted not only Algonquin but Georgian Bay, Algoma and the north shore. It is these paintings that inspire me today.
So let’s look at a piece he painted called Red Maple. (fig 1) Red Maple was painted, I believe, at the Oxtongue Rapids and I can envision Jackson sitting on the bank of the Oxtongue River, sketching and painting, perhaps not far from where I once sat with my camera. Being there I soon felt I had a connection with A.Y. Jackson. I have tried to take a photo that closely resembles Red Maple many times, and I've even tried recreating that scene on the Sydenham River, but I failed each time. Then in September while in Algonquin I was able to capture what I envisioned. In fact, I was able to photograph many scenes I thought to be inspired by Jackson. I’ll show you a couple photos I have taken with A.Y. as my inspiration.
Below are two photographs that I captured. (fig 2 and fig 3) They were both taken relatively close to each other. This stretch of river is accessible off Highway 60. There is a picnic area with benches and a porta potty. Using Nik software I was able to edit the photos to add a little artistic flavour to it.
Just to be able to sit there and view the scenery you can soon understand why A.Y. Jackson and the “Group of Seven” were in love with the Northern Ontario landscape. My challenge to you is finding an artist you like and using that artist for inspiration.
Fig. 1 Red Maple (1914) by A.Y. Jackson