Last night I went to an art gallery to view a photography exhibit.  I was impressed and somewhat surprised that I was impressed.  Why? Because as a painter, I have always been much more moved by a painting than by a photograph.    Most photographs, though interesting and often very good, are still products of a machine, a machine that often records indiscriminately every detail it captures on equal footing—i.e. no interpretation of life, but rather a copy of a catalogue of existing things.  When I photograph a person standing in front of my dining room wall, for example, the photograph records the cracks on the wall with equal emphasis as it records the person. 

But what I saw last night was art and the indiscriminating camera was merely a tool in the hand of the artist in the same way the paintbrush is the tool of a painter.  The subject choice, focus, composition, color setting, etc.  affirmed that “art is nature as seen through a temperament.” (Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot)   What I saw was art, not just photographs.