On Photorealism

 

Jeff Wall -- A Gust of Wind

 

An errant diary entry 7/7/2017:

On photorealism: Artists who work in this genre are interested in 1) the technical challenge, 2) absurdity of the exercise, and 3) the inherent irony of the process. I am reminded of the work of Charles Sheeler whose work was largely based on photographs that he took, which I think was tremendously compelling visually—not to fool the viewer, but to explore the commonalities between the forms, particularly geometric areas of light and shadow. There are photographers such as Jeff Wall and Gregory Crewdson that attempt the opposite, while simultaneously drawing parallels to the dioramic quality of film stills. All these examples delve deeply into the artist’s individual fascination with the visual possibilities in the translations between mediums, and how the borrowed metaphors inform the work.

Photorealism can work at all skill levels where the viewer is either amazed at the exactitude: “I can’t believe that’s a painting”, or “I like how the painting interprets the photo”, or where certain “flaws” or accidents in attempting to do it give it an artistic edge. 

The main takeaway from photorealism is the appreciation of the artist’s valiant attempt to do it. Taking pictures can be too easy, and perhaps the labor involved in finishing the pieces is what makes them so compelling. Sometimes a photographic image is so great that making a painted version of it gives it due reverence.

[7/7/2025: AI music as a form of photorealism in the sense that “I can’t believe that’s AI”. The primary difference is that no one is really doing anything. It can take perhaps a few hours to generate AI music and release it on Spotify and perhaps months to do a photorealist painting. AI also gives us the ability to fool listeners that musical artists are real, but is different in that it is not surreptitious. Roy Lichtenstein wasn’t attempting to hide the fact they were send-ups of comics, whereas the fake musical artist is hiding behind a mask. They’re the men behind the curtain].