From Photo to Fine Art: Meet the 5 Incredible Artists Redefining Photography

Before photography, lifelike images could only be produced by skilled artists, who created the illusion of reality by using special techniques, such as hard, soft, and lost edges. They looked magical. The question now is: Can photography be considered an art? It’s an art, just like drawing or painting. Photos freeze moments in time and capture the emotions and feelings that accompany them, but not all are created to be artworks or forms of artistic expression. A good camera is half of success. If you don’t know the basic rules and tricks of the game, there’s no time like the present to start learning!

Within the visual arts, photography can be classed as fine art or commercial art. While fine art hones in on aesthetics, creativity, and intellectual expression, commercial art supports the marketing and branding activity of a business and comes in the form of brochures, billboards, posters, etc. Photography becomes fine art when it moves beyond or utterly rejects traditional representation. The image speaks louder than words. The following artists continue to redefine what photography can be today:    

1. Tommy Clarke 
   

Tommy Clarke took up photography as a teenager, an unfamiliar world that excited and intimidated him simultaneously. The self-taught photographer grew up on the southern coast of England, having spent almost every childhood holiday by the beach, which awakened his interest in the interaction mechanism between water and land – and how people connect to the sea. As opposed to aerial photographers who use drones, Tommy Clarke likes to get up in the air himself, strapped onto an aircraft flying at low altitudes, when shooting cities like London or New York.  

The renowned aerial photographer finds inspiration everywhere, from nature to a recycling center, but he finds the ocean the most appealing. This isn’t surprising since water provides great reflection images and is good for long-exposure photography. Collectors love Tommy Clarke’s work owing to his unique eye for color and bold compositions that evoke feelings of nostalgia and pure escapism. Liven up your bare walls with Tommy Clarke’s seascape photographs. You can shop photography for sale online and enjoy a high-end gallery experience from the comfort of your home, creating a collection based on your taste and space. 

1. Peter Horvath 
   

With digital technology, Peter Horvath gives photography a new form. The artist brings audio/visual narratives to life by making different adjustments to the film footage and taking advantage of his early collages. The dreamlike world of Peter Horvath is based on cyberpunk, a subgenre of science fiction marked by advanced technology, namely computers and the Internet. Cyberpunk typically involves futuristic technologies that will change the world and some kind of social dystopia. The photographer, born in Toronto, Canada, conceals central characters via peeling, torn paper fragments, and paint; much of his imagery is friends, family, and popular public figures. 

1. Andrew Lever
   

Joining the ranks of National Geographic photographers in 2013, Andrew Lever has demonstrated how much he is willing to go for a picture. His imagery honors all things outdoors, from the sheer number of surfers in Dorset to the herds of elephants in Sri Lanka. The artist’s works have been exhibited in London and Auckland. Andrew Lever has years of experience in creating truly memorable pictures, having explored more than 40 countries worldwide, which has allowed him to build an image archive stuffed with amazing pics. His images have been featured in The Sunday Times, Lonely Planet, and Rough Guides, to name a few. 

1. Vikram Kushwah 
   

Born and raised in India, Vikram Kushwah moved to London in 2008 for a postgraduate diploma in photography at the London College of Communication before completing a master’s degree in photography at the University for Creative Arts in Rochester in 2011. He was shortlisted for the National Portrait Gallery’s national prize, which showcases the very best in contemporary art, for the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize 2019 and Portrait of Britain 2018. The artist tells the story of others through photography, creating a sense of place, personality, and emotion more clearly and faster than the written word. 

Vikram Kushwah capitalizes on romantic surrealism for the mise-en-scene to show what the human eye can’t perceive. His photography is heavily influenced by British culture, not to mention the cryptic Himalayan mountains, where he spent years in boarding school, an ideal backdrop for cultivating the young mind. The emerging artist has been making waves with features in Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, but he’s a regular contributor to The Guardian, The Telegraph, and The Financial Times, among others. His vast portfolio spans across Europe, the USA, Australia, and Asia. 

1. Gina Parr
   

Last but certainly not least, Gina Parr lives and works in Devon and London’s East End. Although she works mainly in the medium of painting, Gina takes photos while traveling or being away from the studio, painting with the camera, so to speak. She infuses magic into her work and does it consistently. As one of the most influential landscape photographers today, Gina Parr’s images have been published in various publications, such as Home & Garden or The Independent. She’s recently joined forces with Glen Scotia, one of the last surviving distilleries, to produce a commissioned painting for their special release in 2025. 

From a young age, Gina Parr knew she wanted to be an artist, with drawing and painting as her chosen means of expression. The photographer finds inspiration in wild open spaces, changes in the weather, and the freedom of the natural world, which helps her maintain a creative flow and produce her best work. Gina Parr made it clear she’s not interested in reproducing a place but rather in seizing the means of production and controlling the created space. For her, photography and painting are forever connected, undeniably similar if you take a closer look. After all, they both use composition, color, subject, and form to create a visually compelling representation.