(This is a reprint of an art history paper written for London Art College) The item for my last paper is the above original 1959 stroboscopic photograph of Harold Edgerton holding a balloon with a bullet being fired at it.  The back has the original information sheet from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).  I pick the … Continue reading Harold Edgerton, Stroboscopic Photography and the Question of What is Art

To a question, there are two types of responses: An answer and a response. An answer is the correct answer to the question. A response is not the correct answer, but a response or reaction to the question. While perhaps relevant to the question and offering useful information, a response does not answer the question. It … Continue reading Responses versus Answers

The 1876 4’4” by 5’9” oil on canvas ‘Le Moulin de la Galette’ is one of Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s most popular and impressive paintings, and a fine example of his early impressionist era. It demonstrates many of the aims, qualities and techniques of impressionist painting. Though regularly portraying beautiful and happy scenes (Renoir famously said “Why … Continue reading Renoir’s ‘Le Moulin de la Galette,’ and Impressionism Theory and Techniques

The 1812 over four by six foot oil painting on canvas ‘The Hay Wain’ is one of the English artist John Constable’s works that greatly influenced the French Romantic and later impressionist movements, and helped, with J. W. M. Turner’s works, usher in landscapes as a worthy subject matter. Constable and his art are dichotomous … Continue reading John Constable’s The Hay Wain (1821)

Caravaggio’s circa 1598-9 145 cm × 195 centimeters oil painting on canvas ‘Judith and Holofernes’ is one of the early examples of his dramatic and visceral religious paintings that helped usher in the Baroque period.  The painting is Caravaggio’s interpretation of the Biblical  story about how the widow Judith saved her people, the Israelites, by … Continue reading Caravaggio’s Judith Beheading Holofernes

Sandro Botticelli’s Primavera, or Allegory of Spring, is a famous large (over 6 x 8 feet) 15th century artwork commissioned by the Medici family, Botticelli’s common patron and the major patron and  influence of Florence Italy’s Renaissance art.  Botticelli’s work falls into the early Renaissance period and he was a pioneer in the use of … Continue reading Sandro Botticelli’s Primavera

Picasso said he wasn't always trying to make a work that was beautiful-- his focus was sometimes on other qualities and things--, and he considered the expected cliched commentaries about the work's beauty, or lack thereof, to be missing the point. Many of his cubist works were trying to depict three dimensions in a two … Continue reading Picasso and the relevance of beauty in his art

I have put up on an alternate website a free online introductory course in authenticating photographs, with readings, photos, videos and homework questions. In fifteen parts, it covers all types and eras of photographs, from daguerreotypes to Polaroids, cabinet cards to modern digital processes. Photo identification course site: