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I don't know if it's improved my comprehension of the fine art concept, but this made for a great Sunday morning read. It's not every day I find cogent and erudite writing, especially on a topic like this. Notapro and Hillsilly, I really enjoy what you've said here.
Recently I've been exploring this more than ever before. A few months ago I walked into a "fine art" photo gallery in a fashionable (people living in the area can afford to buy what they're selling) neighborhood of Philadelphia. Three pictures got my attention.
Famous Alabama artist William Christenberry had a spot. Three of his pictures hung side-by-side as a single work. It was three pictures of a rural roadway corner taken years apart. Interesting to see the change in the landscape over time, but I don't get any great art message from it. If you ask me what human significance it had, I couldn't begin to even imagine. I did however, appreciate it as a depiction of time passing.
The next picture I don't recall the artist. It was a picture of a person holding a fish. I kept looking at it and thinking I'd love to have someone explain to me how this is art. But then, I think there must be people who look at Van Gogh's stuff and wonder the same thing. I'm content at this point to think this question is a beginning to acquisition of knowledge.
The third picture riveted me. I think the title is "Oranges," and it's by Jessica Todd Harper. Apparently, it's the anchor of her book,
Interior Exposure, and it can be seen here:
http://www.jessicatoddharper.com/#s=0&mi=2&pt=1&pi=10000&p=0&a=0&at=0
There's an almost frightening intimacy to that and other pictures in the book. If I tried for a hundred years I don't think I could ever create even one of those pictures. Also, they are technically perfect or near perfect as photography. She obviously knows what "image quality" means, but then she uses that as a foundation to go way beyond.
While I flippantly say fine art photography is anything created by someone with an MFA degree, I also know there are many people who know far more about this than I do. If they think a person holding a fish qualifies, it's up to me to ask why. And the question, of course, is the beginning.
I don't know if it's something I intuited myself years ago or whether I learned it somewhere, but for years I've comforted myself with the adage: The question IS the answer.
For myself in the world of photography, I don't know that I've yet come to know what the question actually is. So, I'll keep looking and asking until I find that question.
