Artist: Jay Kaufman

Medium: Fine Art Photography, Artist Proof

Size: 17" x 22" (unframed); 21.5" x 27.5 (framed)

Artist Bio:

Fine Art Photographer Jay Kaufman has had a multi-faceted career as a professional photographer, having worked in the field since the early 1960's as a photojournalist both in Europe and the U.S. shooting for United Press International; and, also as an advertising and editorial photographer. Digital graphics technology has allowed Kaufman to create a new approach for his photographic expression. His images have a reminiscent contemplative quality, even for the viewer who may have never experienced the time or place represented in his artwork. Kaufman works with and sells his images to interior designers, art galleries and as décor themes in fine restaurants.

Jay Kaufman also licenses his work through art publishing arrangements. He has developed a following of enthusiastic collectors. Kaufman's images are created as limited and open edition prints of varying sizes, that are printed on high quality archival art papers and on fine art canvas and as aluminum prints.

Kaufman describes his work as Photographic Idealism - a self-coined artistic point of view, based upon a concept of blending traditional photographic imagery with classical painting techniques that use the latest advanced artist's tools available from digital graphics technology. As an example, if a photographer and a painter happened upon the identical idyllic meadow, and each wished to capture the beauty of the scene; and express the essence that he or she perceived of the setting through their separate mediums, the painter would have the benefit of absolute control over the composition. The painter could arrange and place objects and subject matter anywhere within the composition; governed only by the limits of his or her imagination and technique.

The painter has, over centuries of artistic expression, always had freedom to convey light and shadow and hue and tone without the restraint of any restrictive law of physics. The painter is free to paint the meadow in any manner he or she wishes onto their canvas. Painters may precisely copy the reality of the scene set before them or alter the scene to suit their perception. A tree here, a pond there, flowers of any chosen shape or color could float in the air on the wisp of a breeze if that were the painter's conception to imply.

Photographers on the other hand, were, prior to the introduction of digital graphics technology, always dependent upon the reality set before them and were generally obligated to capture the image as it appears in reality; rather than as he or she would prefer it to be. One tree, out of place in a perfect meadow could flaw, even ruin an otherwise well balanced composition. For a fine art photographer, the freedom to remove extraneous objects; or to expand or enclose space where it had not previously existed and have the ability to create tone and nuance of color are contemporary freedoms offered by digital graphics to the artist-photographer. The computer and digital graphics software are wonderful tools for artistic expression and are the fine art photographer's unique brush and palette for this time and moment in the history of art.

The digital darkroom is where the fine art photographer can create and print ideal images and ideal compositions. Digital fine art photography has been going through an identity crisis though, being labeled everything from enhanced mixed-media to digital art to computer manipulated imagery. None of these terms accurately describe Kaufman's own understanding of what this innovative artistic point of view offers him. The term Photographic Idealism as Kaufman perceives it may or may not catch on, but this enlightened manner of conveying an image is here to stay.