Cultural artifacts
The two cultural artifacts that I have chosen for this analysis are the photographic images "Wrong" by John Baldessari and "Hong Kong Stock Exchange" by Andreas Gursky. Baldessari created the image 'Wrong' between 1966 and 1968 in Los Angeles, California. John intentionally took the photo wrong on purpose, which explains its poor composition defying most photography composition rules. The composition of 'Wrong' is unusual, and it will leave questioning John's thought process (figure 1). The second image, 'Hong Kong Stock exchange' by Gursky, was taken in 2000, and it shows a geometric panorama of the busy Hong Kong stock exchange trading floor (figure 2). The photograph gives a single extensive scene where the traders are depicted as anonymous bodies.
Figure 1. Baldessari, J. Wrong. (1966-68). Retrieved from http://www.baldessari.org/unique/uj5e8lfzwi5j8ib2n09fmv04i5zl5d
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Common theme
Why must photographers conform to the conventional aspects of photography? Art is not about wrong and right, but why do they still judge artistic works, or why are there rules of photography? The two artists are promoting conceptualism where the artist's thoughts take precedence (Solomon, 2020). Conceptualism is a common theme in the two artistic images. According to John, "You don't want anyone to say 'You can't do that!' But you do get a lot of that in New York. One of the healthiest things about California is - 'Why not?" Baldessari, through his art, wanted to promote freethinking in artists ( Wikiart, 2021) . For Gursky, a picture is not simply the recorder of reality; by provoking artistic materials through digital techniques, Gursky manipulates real pictures to create ultra-objective photographs that appear more scientific than the human-like view. Gursky is a free thinker who believes "vision is an intelligent form of thought" and seeks to become a painter through photography ( Phillips, 2021) . He believes that, unlike the existing belief, he can make photography and painting companions but not opponents.
Figure 2. Gursky, A. Hong Kong Stock Exchange. (2000). Retrieved from https://www.andreasgursky.com/en/works/1994/hong-kong-boerse-2
Personal experience
It is ironic that in today's world, the judgment of a picture is what people use in categorizing photographs as appealing. Occasionally, I often delete some of my images just because of negative comments from individuals who say my pictures are "wrong" or that I have defied the rules of composition. However, from the two items, I have learned that there is nothing always wrong with my pictures.
References
Phillips. (2021). Andreas Gursky . https://www.phillips.com/detail/andreas-gursky/UK010512/26
Solomon, D. (2020, January 7). John Baldessari: An artist in a class by himself (Published 2020) . The New York Times - Breaking News, US News, World News and Videos. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/07/arts/design/john-baldessari-art.html
Wikiart. (2021). Wrong, 1967 - John Baldessari - WikiArt.org . www.wikiart.org. Retrieved July 7, 2021, from https://www.wikiart.org/en/john-baldessari/wrong-1967
