Looking at artwork online

What do you see when you see artwork online?

I participated in an online version of the Artists’ Salon, organized by the artist Cally Shadbolt. You can read my post about the previous Artists’ salon in my post from January.

The premise is fairly simple. Anyone is welcome to to share their work (or not). First, everyone else analyzes and discusses the work without hearing anything from the creator of the work. Afterwards the artist who made the piece responds. It is relaxed and but serious and intentional.

But this time it took place on a google hangout. This caused a lot of the discussion about our work to be around the difficulties and opportunities provided by presenting and looking at artwork online. I have found this to be one of the most challenging aspects of presenting my work as a photographer online. It is something I am still trying to figure out.

Of course it isn’t a problem just for photographers. How work is presented and viewed makes a huge difference. The in-person experience of seeing Mark Rothko or Monet's huge paintings is far more powerful than seeing them on a postcard or on your smartphone. On the other hand, trying to spot the Mona Lisa behind a crowd of fellow tourists with their iPhones out might take away from the experience.

Participating in this online meeting, however was helpful and motivating for me. It’s encouraging to see how we are all working within this new situation and how it will force us all to learn new ideas about our work. I look forward to the next one.