"What is Art?"

Jessica Fink (intern)

30.05.2018

 

In 2nd year of high school our art teacher asked us this. But how would you define art?  Something so intangible, so non-elusive? Art may be full of life and beauty or stay silent as the deep sea or even disappear in a blink of an eye and become most precious and brilliant in evanescence. Art is freedom, play, stubbornness, timelessness and  much more. But for me art is mostly adventure. And along with the thousands of ways to describe art, there are also thousands of media to practice art and reveal it to the world. For me, one of the most precious media to do so is photography. Being able to “catch” the magic of elusive moments and carrying it into endless worlds beyond the concept of time. Though, in todays time technology tends to outrun the human individual and like following a fata morgana in the desert it seems we cannot reach the “holy grail” called modern photography.

To end this myth, a photography workshop was held at the Wolf Science Center on the 24th of April by Rooobert Bayer. The court photographer of the wolfish dukes and ladies of Ernstbrunn gave clear and comprehensive advice in the theory of modern photography by smartphone and DSLR reflex camera. Afterwards, we took the furious beast called “modern photography” by its horns, or should I say paws, and tested our newly earned skills with our wild models, Nanuk and Una. But also dog Pepeo was eager to work with us and to pose for our cameras. After short time we photograph- apprentices fell into a silent euphoria on hunting for the “holy grail”. Bodies wrenched and bended on the search for perfect light conditions and the most beautiful perspective to our models. The resulting pictures owned a special magic (even without post-processing) that was inspired by the polarised enthusiasm of the photo-enthusiasts. The things I learned on that day, in the workshop are shaping my understanding of art too and assure again, that art is mainly an adventure. And with such “wild” models not only a metaphorical, but real one.