This year, I have vowed to myself to visit more galleries. After all, the more I attend lectures at University, I realise the importance of art in photography. Hundreds of years before photography, people relied on paintings as they used to give us a sense of places or people you wouldn’t have access to. How they looked like or behaved. Whether it was a true depiction or not, we will never know, but one thing remains certain is there was always and still is a demand for art.

Photography however, came and changed all that. Somehow depicting the true nature of what was and still is, objects in front of the camera that is ‘eventually’ captured in their simplest form. Same question that still lingers is whether a true depiction of the subject matter was captured in some cases. Images taken will always have a story behind them. The same way as when an artist does a painting.

So, being a last minute.com person, I rushed to see the Seduced by Art: Photography Past & Present, an exhibition that recently concluded at The National Gallery and it was best at explaining all this.

“View Old Master painting through a new lens… a provocative look at how early and contemporary photographers have made use of fine art traditions.”
Excerpt from the exhibition leaflet

The exhibition was awesome, but I wish it had more time after my lecture on Modernity the following day so I could go back and see it again, as some of the stuff the lecturer discussed I saw at the exhibition. Perhaps in hindsight, I got to enjoy and understand the lecture more.

Please watch the video playlist from The National Gallery as it gives a better insight on what the exhibition was all about.

Update: 23 Jan 2013
Just realised the video link was letting me share the playlist. Please look for clips where Tina Barney and Jorma Puranen discuss how paintings influence them in their photography work in relation to the exhibition. (Click links of the artists to see some of their work as discussed on the videos)