What exactly is Fine Art when it relates to photography?

I found a great definition in a post by Steve Johnson on his The Minimalist Photographer site: "It means, simply art that has no purpose other than being art – art that is its own reason for existing… To qualify, the intent would have to be to produce something that has no specific purpose outside of itself." Steve's post about fine art photography was an eye-opener for me and it really drives home what I currently try to accomplish with my images:

Capturing the reflection of light off people and objects, in such a manner that it represents the reason why that reflection at the moment of capturing inspired me to capture it on film or digital media at all.

The interesting notion here is that, different from other art forms, photography to be creative needs an already existing creation; be this a man made object, a natural object or a living being. Whereas a painter by using the capturing medium (canvas, paint and whatever else the artists decides to use) can create a picture of a vase without an actual vase in existence, and the potter can create a formerly not existent vase by applying his creative medium, without light bouncing off an actually existing vase a photographic image of a vase is not possible.

I'm probably rambling here and the above can be the topic of a long post on a psychology blog, or maybe initiate some serious psychoanalysis. Te essence, however, is that Steve Johnson's post and his definition of fine art made me realize what I really want to accomplish: creating photographic images that can exist just because they exist. The beauty of this definition also lies in the fact that it detaches the art 'value' of the images from any opinion whether they 'are' fine art: they are because they exist, not because someone (including me) says or agrees they are.

Does that mean that I will be happy if someone says an image of mine is fine art? Sure. Does that mean that I will be offended if someone says that an image of mine is not fine art? Nope. Does that mean that I (eventually) will not start selling images? No. Does that mean that I will be unhappy if anyone wants to buy one of my images? Definitely no!

For now, however, join me in enjoying the images you see on my website. And I will be happy to respond to any questions or comments you might have.