Is Art smoke and mirrors?

Or is it just a reflection of self?   Interesting work done by Saul Leiter (above) and Ernst Haas (below) around ideas of screens, reflections, and distance.

Particularly like the ones taken in New York in the rain, with backgrounds often out of focus but with very clear shape and form.

Photography is not Art

Is photography Art?   There continues to be academic debate about this issue, for example, Cotton (2009) argues that it depends on the photographers motivations and working practices.   In the Guardian (5 September 2013) David Bailey puts it more simply: “Photography is not art and painting’s not art, it’s whether the person whose doing it is an artist.”

Kate Moss photo taken by David Bailey

Photograph: David Bailey/National Portrait Gallery.

Cotton, C. (2009) The Photograph as Contemporary Art, Thames & Hudson: London.