Paintings vs Photographs

Sifu Brinker recently mentioned something that really made me think: That something can be too perfect. This was strange to hear. Without ever really asking myself why, I've always held the notion that mastery and perfection were the same thing. Although they're closely related, they're not identical.

I believe an example of this is the relation between a photograph and a painting. A photograph represents perfection. A photograph has the ability to perfectly replicate what you're seeing, over and over again. Never making a mistake. It's essentially perfect. However, a camera has no skill. All it does is see what's in front of it and make a perfect copy. On the other hand, painting represents mastery, or at least the effort to attain it. Never can an artist paint something perfectly. Never can an artist paint something without imposing some of their individual personality into it. The artist always makes mistakes, but in the end, they can still create something beautiful. A painting has character and personality behind it. A photograph is bland, as it's just a perfect replication of reality.

If you were to have a million photographs of the same scene, there would be no differences, no mistakes, no personality. However, a million paintings of the same scene would all be different, even if they were all painted by the same artist. Sure, there'd be similarities, but mistakes could always be found. These mistakes show the personality behind the art, as the artist imposes their own perspective on the scene.

In relation to Kung Fu, a painting is made by a martial artist, on the path to mastery, and a photograph is made by a poser, on the path to perfection. Anyone can replicate what they see in front of them perfectly, given enough time. If everyone practiced Kung Fu the exact same way, just replicating what they see, would we ever learn anything? The art would have nowhere to evolve. It's the personality and the different perspectives brought by different people that help everyone learn.

Andrew Meier