Maier was untrained, but her images are artfully framed and detailed
So much has been accomplished by those who were "untrained, but". I wonder if that says as much about the training as it does about the accomplishments.
I think the two are orthogonal. People who are driven to create art will keep doing it, growing, learning from other artists they come across; they might seek out more formal training as part of their journey or not.
> "That some of our abilities are inherent. They just have to be set free."
Heavily disagreed. I'm a street photographer myself (self-trained), and Maier's work has been inspiring both from an artistic and motivational perspective.
These abilities aren't "inherent". They take years and years of practice to hone, and a constant criticism of your own work (from yourself or otherwise).
I don't think any photographer ever picked up a camera, figured out how to work it, and then just started taking good work. Bear in mind also that I don't know a single street photographer who's able to shoot anything close to >5% keepers, much less show-ers.
When you view art like this, keep in mind that not only is it a highly selected slice of the artist's entire body of work, but also you are looking at what is most likely their top work at the prime of their abilities. What you don't see are the years of producing forgettable, boring, and downright bad work to get there.
That reminds me of something I dislike about street photography - there are the Greats - people like Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, Garry Winogrand, etc. that are positively worshipped in the street photography community.
To the point where anything that they ever produced is automatic gold. People don't seem to account for the fact that, like all other artists, 99% of what these people produced is somewhere between utter crap and not great.
But nope. If it was shot by HCB, it's automatically a divine work gifted to us by the Gods of Photography themselves. Ugh.
There is a difference between the already vetted produce of someone like HCB and the raw produce we are dealing with here. Of course he produced crap, but that crap has never seen the light of day. I doubt anyone wandering upon a pile of thousands of his photographs would consider them automatic gold.
I sculpt in stone as a hobby. I'd heard that quote, or variations of it, before I started, and just regarded it as a clever quip artists make. Not really a reflection of the process of carving, which would be much more detailed and painstaking. I was surprised to discover just how true, for me anyway, that quote is.
Disagreed. I think everyone has the potential for creativity, it just gets scared out of us as we grow up. Teaching someone to paint or take well-structured photographs is pretty much trivial as long as they put in the effort. And once you give somebody a tool to adequately express the way they see the world, most can barely help but be creative.
It depends what you mean by 'an artist'. Consider that every one of us is constantly expressing ourselves, in unique ways and with a unique personality, in language. There's no reason you can't train someone to have similar competency to express themselves in another medium.
People who attend those 'drawing from life' courses invariably are much better by the end of it. I knew a guy who didn't have a lot of artistic flair, but he liked cars and machines. By the end of the course he was producing some really precise, great looking drawings of vehicles and engines.
If you define 'an artist' as someone who's able to move the state of the art, create bold new visions -- well, not everyone may be capable of that. But I think that's an unnecessarily narrow conception of art.
> If you define 'an artist' as someone who's able to move the state of the art, create bold new visions -- well, not everyone may be capable of that. But I think that's an unnecessarily narrow conception of art.
Agreed. I don't think you can 'train' someone to be a cultural revolutionary. Look at Stephen King, he spent virtually his entire life writing stories, the education he received only served to skip him past mistakes he would have run into and figured out by himself sooner or later.
There are however countless thousands of people out there writing nothing more than pulp fiction, entertaining people and probably only making enough cash to help put their kids through college or to pay for a nice vacation next year.
I used to play bass guitar, I used to write my own songs, I knew a few people who genuinely liked them. If I'd have put as much effort into my music as I have writing then I would probably genuinely be a musician right now, but I want to be an author because since I could talk I've been telling stories.
So much has been accomplished by those who were "untrained, but". I wonder if that says as much about the training as it does about the accomplishments.