9
ding in my hands is often only a small part of a complex activity which
has been carried out and which must be assessed as a whole. By saying this
I also want to express that our point of view has begun to move; often, qua-
lity can no longer be found where we expect to find it. And we will only
find it if we move, if we do not stand in front of pictures with the connois-
seur’s security, calmly and sacrosanct, making judgments.“
Once again, this answer makes it clear that the reception of art today is in
the process of a fundamental change. In the future, the individual work of
art alone is no longer decisive for the experience of art and thus for a pos-
sible purchase decision, but the embedding of the individual work into
an intellectually superordinate system: in other words, a concept and its
hierarchical position within the entire architecture of the opus. Compa-
red to the past, this consequently requires a deepened knowledge of the
ideas underlying the works. The photographer must do everything in or-
der to make the ideas underlying his or her opus available to the viewers.
Conclusion
Through the combination of photography and computer, it has become
possible to create virtual realities which allow the photographer to create
images to a far greater extent than before. However, reality and imaginati-
on remain the cornerstones of photographic art work. In art, guidelines
in the sense of a dominating style of an era have lost their relevance. Art –
and thus photographic art, as well – is what the majority of viewers see as
such. Different styles co-exist peacefully. This liberal attitude of the art
market has enabled photography to carefully align with the established
branches of art. In photography, the equality of billions of people has
been achieved in an artistic technique for the first time – as Joseph Beuys
said, “everyone is an artist“. Until now, photography is the only mass mo-
vement on which Beuys’ postulate could be proven. But the result is an
immense amount of images. The singular photographic image has beco-
me impossible to select, and thus the institutions making this selection
are gaining greater importance: the museums, the art scholars and the
art dealers. A look at the elite of photographers shows that the work of to-
day’s successful artists has an underlying concept which is plausible to
the art viewer and which ties the entire opus of an artist (and not so
much a single work of art) to the viewer in an intellectual and spiritual
way. Does the art of photography exist? It does, but only if the majority
decides in favour of it. The protagonists have made their decision a long
time ago. However, the large market of buyers will take its time. In the
long run, the number of exhibits of photographic art at the large art fairs
is a good indicator for how much photographic art the market absorbs,
and for how long.
Translation: Carol Oberschmidt
