Painting and photography school.

Schools of photography and painting can be divided into broad sense and narrow sense in photography.

Broadly speaking, this school takes painting modeling and aesthetic pursuit as the principle, and regulates its own photography art school.

In a narrow sense, it refers to a school of photography that came into being in the early 1950s, reached its peak in 1857, came to an end in the 1980s, and finally ended in the great "criticism" initiated by Emerson in 1886. Taking the contemporary pre-Raphaelites as an example, it pursues Victorian artistic style. It is the mainstream of photography in this period.

Most of the creative themes of this photography art school are taken from religious teachings or literary works. The creative method is to draw a sketch first, ask someone to act as the photographer, and then deal with it in the darkroom. Therefore, the structure of the work is rigorous and the layout is exquisite. The artistic feature is that the works are full of plot, narration and implication.

The emergence of this photography school in Sri Lanka is a historical necessity. As mentioned above, once photography entered human social life, it swept people with its ability to "copy and preserve" real scenes, but whether it can enter the temple of plastic arts with its ability to "imitate images and convey feelings" remains to be developed and explored. 1847, a still life titled "The Decline of Ancient Rome" filmed by a little-known man named T. Couthures was praised by art historians as the Victorian art trend-the pre-Raphaelite art trend, which shocked and pondered people at that time. Make photographers realize that photography will definitely make great achievements in the "art field" and have great modeling potential and space, so as to begin to observe another feature of photography-modeling, and inspire and stimulate their enthusiasm for exploration in this respect. For example, Mrs. J.M. Cameron, a famous female photographer in this period, made it clear that she would "resolutely follow the pre-Raphael school" and actively participate in initiating and organizing the establishment of the "pre-Raphael school" in the history of photography. After a period of exploration, eight years later, in 1855, photographer O.G. Relander imitated T. Couthures' method of shooting stills-manipulated the director to shoot the plot work "Drama" which was praised by critics as "the masterpiece at the beginning of photography art" and "painting with photography". Don Quixote, another painter in W.L. Price's study, also appeared one after another.

At the same time, the popularization and popularization of shooting techniques such as "stitching synthesis" invented by British photographer R. Bayard in 1852 and "retouching" invented by French photographer H. finger in 1855 undoubtedly provided conditions for the further development of "painting by photography". So in 1856, P.H. Robinson wrote Dawn and Sunset, which was praised as "Victorian artistic style"; The following year-1857, O.G. Relander used 30 collodion negatives, spent six weeks, carefully photographed the pinnacle of painting and photography school-"Two Lifestyles" on 400×800mm protein photographic paper, and held the "Art Treasures Exhibition" in Manchester in.

It is worth mentioning that in 1869, H.P. Robinson summed up the artistic practice of this school at this stage and wrote a theoretical work of this art school-The Image Effect of Photography. He clearly pointed out in his book: "A photographer must have rich feelings and in-depth artistic cognition to become an excellent photographer. Undoubtedly, the progress and continuous invention of photography technology have inspired a higher level, which is enough for photographers to play more freely. However, technical improvement does not mean artistic progress, because photography itself is exquisite and complete, and it is just a way to take it to a higher goal. "

The reason why "elegant art" completed its own artistic path at the end of the century is that it is limited by rules and regulations, regards the "pre-Raphaelites" as nobles, and is unwilling to cross the line and get rid of real life, looking for themes from the Bible, poetry and history, which can be described as "eating old and not renovating". So around 1886, it ended in the voice of "criticism" by P.H. Emerson. The famous photographers in this art school are: W.L. Brass, Mrs. J.M. Cameron, F.H. Day, Nadal, J.Meyer, H.P. Robinson, O.G. Relander, etc. Famous photographic works include: Don Quixote in the study of 1855, Dawn and Sunset of 1856, Two Life Paths of 1857, Night arrival, homelessness/dying of 1858, and Ms. sallot of 186 1.

Now let's talk about the broad sense of "painting school" photography art school, which is what we usually call "painting school" photography.

Although this school also adheres to the modeling law and aesthetic orientation of painting, deliberately pursues the "meaningful form" of photographic works, and attaches importance to the expression of "emotion" and the modeling of "beauty" of photographic works, photographers of this school always pay attention to the excavation and development of the characteristic potential of documentary photography and use the modeling means of "selection" to "create". When shooting, I rely on my eyes, which are good at discovering beauty, to find the theme in the real environment. Photographers engaged in "painting school" photography pay attention to feeling, discovery and comprehension. As early as 1850, D.O. Hill and R. Adamson filmed a portrait work "Mary Ruth Stripes", which was praised by critics as a typical "17th century Dutch painting style". If we look at the works of this period, you will find that some "painting-style" backbone photographers also do something from time to time. Unfortunately, this creative method was lost in the creative wave of "elegant art". It was not until 1886 that P.H. Emerson delivered a speech on Photography, the Art of Art, and the publication of his photo album "The Open Life and Scenery in Norfolk", which started from reality, that people re-reflected and paid attention to it. 1889, he wrote an inspiring book, Naturalistic Photography, which advocated a new concept of photography, so that the two axes of the characteristics of photography ontology gradually discovered and recognized by people during this period were deliberately combined, and photography was led out of the dead end of "elegant art". In the next new historical period, under the influence of new social thoughts and artistic thoughts, it will gradually enter a new stage of development, produce a new school of photography art, and photography art will take on a new look.