A picture is worth a thousand words...
Photography of itself is an enterprise of the another order and though "snapping" a picture may not be an art form in its own nature. The act of "making" an image does have the peculiar capacity to turn its subjects into works of art themselves.
Take for example this image of the the Time & Life Building in New York City [click image for larger version]
Then there are other times where a "photograph" will simply ceases being "about" its subject and merely become become a study in the in the possibilities of "photography" itself. It is because of this self fulfilling recursive (subject-abstract) nature where the "subject" folds itself into a limitless "abstract" study of open possibilities which allows an "admirer" to be freed to walk down an unrestricted pathway which may have never existed before and when one path appears to draw to an end, another has the ability to seamlessly open up. In this way the photographer is leading the viewer on an open ended voyeuristic journey of which no two people will will take exactly the same path. Nor will the photographer themselves fully know the path on which they have been the leader of. The greatest joy one can have as a photographer is to stand back as others take this mental excursion and note the expressions and comments created as result of their shared insight. This in itself is the photographers means of making their own trek vicariously though their viewers, much like placing a filter in front of the lens. Here the "viewer" of the image becomes the photographers filter to the image making it a thing of art which cant be expressed even in a thousand words...
The art of fine art...
Fine art typically describes any art form developed primarily for aesthetics or concept rather than for utility or defined purpose. Herein the term "fine" also does not refer to the "quality" of the art, but to the "purity" of the art or endeavor which create the work. in the photographic world, the term refers to images made which fulfill a creative vision or insight of their creator as opposed to those which where created within the context of photojournalism whose goal is to provide visual support for a written story or a commercial work with the indent to promote a product or drive a desired action as a byproduct.
In this body of work, the "concept" will be to approach the "edge" allowing the viewer to admire what may be on the other side. Expanding the gray area between light and dark, allowing one to approach the event horizon with the illusion of safety while staring directly into the abyss.
So begins the journey...
There are many sites which focus on the technical aspects of photography, things like f-stops and shutter speeds, while yet others instruct on the use photo manipulation tools, or even wet dark room techniques.
The Bus taken in Detroit Michigan, click image for larger version.
All of these are worth while in their own right, however very rarely does one find guidance to the true "soul" of the image. The unadulterated philosophy of the making of the imaging, the drive of the photographer to in many cases see beauty in mundane and even in the ugly.
Edward Weston was known to define photography as "a way of self-development, a means to discover and identify one self with all the basic forms-with nature". This 'self discovery" though the lens of a camera created by the photographers dissociated seeing where the objective eye experiences the world around it though a distorted veil which filters out the mundane, coyly pretty bobbles of everyday life and allow the sprit of this altered reality to form into a frozen freedom which will be forever still and unmoving yet will move all those who see it.
As we take this journey to look over the edge, the goal shall be to seek that moment of equilibrium where patient instant reveals it self to the photographer and is captured as a moment of "heighted reality" (Moholy-Nagy) by the camera lens. This is the "edge"...