Painter Or Photographer; Which Has It Easier?

Artist Casey Holtzinger in his studio at the time in Norfolk's York Street in the 1980s. 
Nikon film camera, 35mm Kodachrome 64 and only the light that was present. (click to enlarge)

I had a good friend who was a very talented fine art and commercial artist.  His medium was pen and watercolors and his subject matter was historical scenes.  Unfortunately, my friend passed away several years ago.  His name was Casey Holtzinger.

Casey was a self-taught painter who grew up near Washington, Pennsylvania.  He spent his youth near the railroad tracks which developed into a lifelong fascination and love for railroads.  That is how we met decades ago, because of my lifelong interest in railroads and his creating beautiful and historically accurate paintings of them.  Casey also painted marine scenes—boats, shipyards, ferries, lighthouses, etc.—as well as historical buildings, monuments, a few aircraft and street scenes.  

When he was commissioned to create a painting or just decided on a subject to paint, Casey spent most of his 'creation' time researching his subject matter as he insisted that the subject and their colors be historically accurate.  The problem was that almost all of the old photographs he could find of his subjects were in black and white!  He then had to delve much deeper into his research to determine what colors everything in his painting actually were.  After sometimes months of research, he would start to actually paint.  As I said, quite talented as well as being a good friend and teacher.  You can see the kind of work he did by searching on "Casey Holtzinger" and images of some of his paintings will return.  I am fortunate that Casey gave me several signed "Artist's Proofs" of his work and I keep them as symbols of our friendship and of his talent.

Often times, to get Casey's "goat," so to speak, another good friend and I would argue with him about who had it easier, painters or photographers?  Casey's point of view was that photographer's had it much easier as they just had to point the camera, focus and press the button to make an image.  In most cameras, he would go on to say, you didn't even have to set exposure as there was an automatic mode.  After clicking the shutter, all that needed to be done was to take the film to a store to have it developed and printed!  What could be easier and more straightforward?

On the other hand, my friend and I would counter with, artists have it easer as you can paint in or paint out anything in the composition.  In fact, you could create a composition from pure fantasy and not be bound by reality as photographers are.  If a telephone pole or a pile of trash or car were in the way of the best composition, the painter just could exclude it.  If the composition would be improved by adding a symmetrical tree, consider it done. Easy.

We would tell Casey that if the light was poor or the sky was that bald ugly gray color which wasn't great for us photographers, an artist can paint in any color or light he or she wishes as well as add those gorgeous long, dark shadows of late winter afternoon's as well.  People, trees, landscaping, waves, clouds—really anything—could be added, placed or removed at will.  Obviously, the painter had it much easier than us photographers as we were stuck with whatever was there!  

Of course, during these discussions, talent and ability of artists and photographers were ignored, by design.  My friend and I didn't want to get into how difficult it really is to portray an historical scene with correct perspective, colors, shadow and detail as opposed to snapping a photograph of whatever might have been in front of us.  

These light-hearted arguments went on for years.  We always had fun and, as guys like to do, we liked to rib each other just for aggravation's sake.  Casey was a true artist and a long missed friend.

Too bad Casey is not with us any longer as he would now would win the debate.  With the advent of digital photography's software tools such as Photoshop, Lightroom, On1, Capture One, DXO and others, we can take out or put in or change just about anything we want in our images without much trouble at all.  Heck, now in Photoshop Beta, we can now create specific content that matches the surrounding areas of our images with the click of a mouse button.  I suspect in the future almost anything will be possible when it comes to modifying an image.

Yes, Casey would win this argument today.  But that doesn't take away the artistic talent and creativity of all of you photographers out there.  Your work continues to amaze and delight.  Keep photographing.  

Join me over at my website, https://www.dennismook.com.  

Thanks for looking. Enjoy!  

Dennis A. Mook  

All content on this blog is © 2013-2023 Dennis A. Mook. All Rights Reserved. Feel free to point to this blog from your website with full attribution. Permission may be granted for commercial use. Please contact Mr. Mook to discuss permission to reproduce the blog posts and/or images.