Maybe two categories or two challenges - faithful and spirit
Faithful would be an attempt to re-create the painting in a photograph as closely as possible. Spirit would be an attempt to re-create the spirit / feel / emotion of the painting with photography, but not necessarily re-create the appearance of the painting. (Does that make any sense?)
Would Warhol qualify as he's not a painter per se but a lithographer or would it strictly be reserved for the likes of Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso, Vincent Van Gogh, Georgia O'Keefe etc...?
As long as the title of the photograph has to be the title of the painting so that us uncultured types can refer to the original painting easily it would be great :-)
Have to say that I am not thrilled by this idea. If we look at the Weston challenge, the pictures (especially the nudes) that tried to copy his exactly were much inferior and although some were technically good, lost the "soul" of the original.
The exercise of copying the old masters in art school is useful but it is done mostly having a sculpture as the model, but to translate a painting into a different medium is as difficult as to make a film after a book.
There are a few movies that went a bit beyond the book in the best sense of the word, such as "Tous les matins du monde" but there are some that although visually beautiful almost destroyed a book and the one that comes to my mind now is "the Girl with the Pearl Earring". (Yes, a particularly deft hand will do a "perfect" copy of Vermeer that will have in the end the same fate as "a perfect crime".)
We might try to do something "in the manner of", or try a certain well known subject in our interpretation.
Just my two/three cents here.
I like the idea -- but I really have no background in art. I would hope that the challenge description requests that the title be the original title of the painting, since I probably will be clueless in many cases. (I only know girl with a pearl earring because of the book. :)
Would Warhol qualify as he's not a painter per se but a lithographer or would it strictly be reserved for the likes of Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso, Vincent Van Gogh, Georgia O'Keefe etc...?
I think "painting" could mean non-photographic, which would include Warhol.
That challenge winners starts from this photo down.
Well isn't that an insult to the 1st and 2nd place winners!!!
Take it whatever you want it... I speak my mind pretty clearly, and try not to hurt people... I didn't say 1st and second photos are bad, but not good as third and fourth and so on... personal matter.
