I’ve sold photographs.  I’ve been taking and selling pictures since the mid-70s.  The Stars & Stripes and the European edition of TV Guide published nice articles on my photography after I won first place in several categories of the annual HQ USEUCOM (Military Forces, Europe) Photography Contest.  I was nearly overwhelmed with requests for portrait photography. 

I continued to sell photographs and articles to newspapers, magazines and advertising agencies as a motorsports photojournalist through the mid-80s.  It wasn’t until recently, however, that I considered selling photographs as fine art.   It has taken some convincing to transform myself from photographer to artist.  I have some really beautiful images of beautiful things and beautiful places. But, to call my work fine art seems a bit pompous. I certainly did not create the beauty.  Was photographing that beauty creative?  I painted a photograph of Venice in Photoshop Elements.  Does that make it art?

I did a Google search on fine art photography.  Here is what I found in Wikipedia:

Fine art photography refers to photographs that are created to fulfill the creative vision of the artist. Fine art photography stands in contrast to photojournalism and commercial photography. Photojournalism is to promote an editorial point of view. Commercial photography’s main focus being to sell a product or service.
The final creative reason for a fine art photograph is the photograph itself. It is not a means to another end except perhaps to please those besides the photographer who beholds it.

Wikipedia is my most authoratative source of information. I may not be an Ansel Adams but, according to Wikipedia,  I am a fine art photographer.  

I have done a lot of thinking on the subject since taking steps to promote my name in the fine art field. An acquaintance, former editor of Dirt Rider Magazine, sells his images of Motocross Legends as fine art. I have since learned that calendars and fine art prints of these legends sell quite well. And, they are expressly presented as fine art prints. Somehow, that seems to be an oxymoron, calling a calendar fine art.   This classic image of motocross legend David Bailey at the Unadilla MX Track, New Berlin, NY was taken in 1983. When printed on fine art paper using the giclée printing process it is fine art.  Many people have enjoyed them.  It seems the only answer to the question is … beauty is in the mind of the beholder.  I enjoy my art.  Hope you will too.