What Does Painterly Photography Mean to You?

If I asked you what comes to mind when I say painterly photography, what would your answer be? Do you think of technical art school concepts that define the two mediums like abstract versus figurative? Or maybe you think of stylistic photography choices, whether in shooting or post-processing, that give the finished image a timeless quality. Whatever your reaction to the concept is, here's a cool mini-series to check out that is delving much deeper into the topic.

With five videos currently available in the playlist, the host takes the viewer through a variety of subjects as they relate to the concepts we see in classical paintings and of the various photography genres. Clearly passionate about both photography and painting, viewers are treated to what are effectively philosophical conversations about what goes into making art and how people relate through different mediums and try to convey concepts and emotion. We all know that subjectivity plays such a huge role in how art is received so it's nice to see a video breaking down some of the core concepts.

The first video in the series offers us a simple but effective discussion about some key differences between photography and painting. Some deeper genre differences like abstract and figurative concepts for painting as well as photography genre differences like photojournalism and fashion are a central theme for the first video. If you have an art school background, you'll be readily familiar with a lot of the terms and artists thrown around here.

Definitely some interesting ideas at play here with the very notion of painterly photography an interesting enough concept to catch my attention. I would definitely describe some of my favorite photographers, ones whose work I look to for inspiration, as painterly. Give the first video a watch and then decide for yourself if you think you'd like to keep the discussion going with the additional videos.