What is Photo-realism?

Photo-realism is art that is based on photography. Painted pictures and sculptures with very realistic scenes and extremely detailed objects are part of Photo-realism . It became very popular in the 20th century around the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. It evolved from pop art and abstract impressionism, which are very popular art movements at the time. Photo-realism is also referred to as Super-realism, Magic Real, Romanic Real, Radical Real, Hyper-real, and Sharp Focus. It was simply given those names because the picture looks so real. The reason why Photo-realists created some amazing pictures that are very illusional is because it makes people feel like their in the picture. Some very well-known photo-realists are Ralph Goings, Chuck Close, Duane Hanson, and Audrey Flack .There are two ways to create a photo-realistic picture, one is taking a picture of something, then projecting the photograph on a canvas and using an airbrush or bristle brush, to provide a lot of precise details and give a photographic effect. Another way is using the grid method, where you focus on each box until your painting is complete. Photo-realists often paint street scenes or portraits because that gives them the opportunity to be realistic and add the reflection from the buildings. Photo-realists use a lot of focus and perspective because of the picture. Most Photo-realists concentrate on one subject or object, like they will have different paintings of the same thing. But everyday things and commercial objects were often painted of sculpted, just like pop-art. Photo-realism is an international art movement, which means it was discovered all around the world, but it is very popular in the U.S and Europe. Using a photograph or picture was the motivation for the painting but it has been questioned many times, because using photographs is both good and bad. Good because the picture is the inspiration, and bad because it does not give you a chance to be creative. Even though Photo-realism is not that popular today, it is part of our art history.