MIPP Convention 2012

On the 21st of October 2012, I addressed a lecture to a good number of professional photographers who attended the MIPP Convention 2012. The lecture was entitled Art and Photography: Art and its co-relation with photography 1836-1970. 

An abstract of the lecture follows:

In the second half of the 19th century, artists were introduced to a new medium which many believed was to become their main competitor. Photography affected in a adverse manner artists who at the time were earning a living out of producing pictorial portraits and fine art scenery. Contrarily, avant-garde 19th century artists (Manet, Eakins and Monet) and successively major exponents of Modern Art (Picasso, Duchamp and Warhol) considered photography as a new medium of expression which helped them to create and enhance their artistic spirit in an innovative way. Was photography in competition with the artistic sector or else it was moving in a parallel direction? In what ways did artists utilise such medium and to what extent it helped them discover new artistic ways of expression?

The lecture resulted to be a fruitful experience in which several issues were discussed on Art and photography. It was stressed the importance of photography as being a form of art. In fact the lecture dealt with the element of having artists making use of photography for didactic purposes (Thomas Eakins) and also utilizing such an art form to extend their vision and artistic production (Manet and Picasso). In return, Photography, as a branch of learning, was later to benefit and to escalate the realm of fine art.

Finally, I would like to thank the Malta Institute of Professional Photography for once again granting me the opportunity to lecture and present to the audience an interesting subject, which I hope it generate artistic conscience and sparked inspiration in each and everyone who was present.