Readers of this Fine Art Astrophotography forum might be interested in an article posted in the Cloudy Nights Articles section regarding art and astrophotography.
There's a new Cloudy Nights article that examines the relationship between the contemporary "Art World" and astrophotography
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It’s an interesting question - is astrophotography art? The same can be asked of photography. Both are an expression of an individual’s feelings to some degree, so yes, both are technically “art”. Anything meant to convey a feeling can be considered art. Strange to know there are no Astro photos in art galleries. I’m sure this will change.
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I’m not sure I understand your point - other than the fact that you link to an article.
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Keith Hanssen:
It’s an interesting question - is astrophotography art? The same can be asked of photography. Both are an expression of an individual’s feelings to some degree, so yes, both are technically “art”. Anything meant to convey a feeling can be considered art. Strange to know there are no Astro photos in art galleries. I’m sure this will change.
Actually, Keith, my work has been represented by two commercial art galleries for five years, Gallery Sur in Carmel, CA, and Waterfall Gallery in NYC. My work has also been included in museum exhibitions, and is in museum, corporate, and private permanent collections in the US and Europe. Several of my colleagues here at AstroBin solicited my advise regarding moving their work into the fine art world, so I recently published a book on the topic, The New Art of Astrophotography. In addition to my experiences in the art world, I include interviews in the book with gallery directors, museum curators, astronomers, and artists to present a broad view on the subject. From what I can see, astrophotgraphy is now considered a category of fine art photography in some of the art world, but it is still emerging and evolving. To your point, it is not common yet, but it is getting there.
CS, Gary
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Gary Lopez · Oct 2, 2025, 02:24 PM
Keith Hanssen:
It’s an interesting question - is astrophotography art? The same can be asked of photography. Both are an expression of an individual’s feelings to some degree, so yes, both are technically “art”. Anything meant to convey a feeling can be considered art. Strange to know there are no Astro photos in art galleries. I’m sure this will change.
Actually, Keith, my work has been represented by two commercial art galleries for five years, Gallery Sur in Carmel, CA, and Waterfall Gallery in NYC. My work has also been included in museum exhibitions, and is in museum, corporate, and private permanent collections in the US and Europe. Several of my colleagues here at AstroBin solicited my advise regarding moving their work into the fine art world, so I recently published a book on the topic, The New Art of Astrophotography. In addition to my experiences in the art world, I include interviews in the book with gallery directors, museum curators, astronomers, and artists to present a broad view on the subject. From what I can see, astrophotgraphy is now considered a category of fine art photography in some of the art world, but it is still emerging and evolving. To your point, it is not common yet, but it is getting there.
CS, Gary
Glad to hear this. A long-time coming. I’m preparing a portfolio of 13×19 astrophotographic prints to take over to an art gallery not far from where I live. I have no idea whether they’ll be interested, but I’ll find out.
Erik Westermann · Sep 4, 2025, 12:42 AM
I’m not sure I understand your point - other than the fact that you link to an article.
He’s talking about astrophotography as a category of visual art, the kind that is displayed in museums, art galleries, walls on cafes, etc. This is distinct from astrophotography as a scientific endeavor to deepen our knowledge of astronomy, cosmology and astrophysics. It’s the focus on the aesthetic/subjective experience people feel when looking at these mysterious marvels of creation. Of course, knowing something—or knowing a lot—about these objects from a scientific perspective doesn’t dampen the aesthetic response at all, but for many people, if they find the image engaging their senses they may become curious about what they’re looking at—and that’s where science takes over.
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Jerry Gerber:Gary Lopez · Oct 2, 2025, 02:24 PMKeith Hanssen:
It’s an interesting question - is astrophotography art? The same can be asked of photography. Both are an expression of an individual’s feelings to some degree, so yes, both are technically “art”. Anything meant to convey a feeling can be considered art. Strange to know there are no Astro photos in art galleries. I’m sure this will change.
Actually, Keith, my work has been represented by two commercial art galleries for five years, Gallery Sur in Carmel, CA, and Waterfall Gallery in NYC. My work has also been included in museum exhibitions, and is in museum, corporate, and private permanent collections in the US and Europe. Several of my colleagues here at AstroBin solicited my advise regarding moving their work into the fine art world, so I recently published a book on the topic, The New Art of Astrophotography. In addition to my experiences in the art world, I include interviews in the book with gallery directors, museum curators, astronomers, and artists to present a broad view on the subject. From what I can see, astrophotgraphy is now considered a category of fine art photography in some of the art world, but it is still emerging and evolving. To your point, it is not common yet, but it is getting there.
CS, Gary
Glad to hear this. A long-time coming. I’m preparing a portfolio of 13×19 astrophotographic prints to take over an art gallery not far from where I live. I have no idea whether they’ll be interested, but I’ll find out.
Best of luck with your presentation, Jerry. I found that a strong relationship with the gallery is an important starting point for representation. It took nearly a year of testing different print, framing, and size approaches to finally find the formula for the gallery in Carmel. Since the work has been hung, I have had good sales every year for five years (in fact, the Carmel gallery has sold 5 pieces in the last 4 weeks). The regular sellers have been 30"x40" - 45"x 60" acrylics, and 30"x40" watercolor prints in floater frames. You might want to share that with the gallery that you are approaching.
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Gary Lopez · Oct 3, 2025, 05:44 AM
Gary Lopez · Oct 2, 2025, 02:24 PM
Keith Hanssen:
It’s an interesting question - is astrophotography art? The same can be asked of photography. Both are an expression of an individual’s feelings to some degree, so yes, both are technically “art”. Anything meant to convey a feeling can be considered art. Strange to know there are no Astro photos in art galleries. I’m sure this will change.
Actually, Keith, my work has been represented by two commercial art galleries for five years, Gallery Sur in Carmel, CA, and Waterfall Gallery in NYC. My work has also been included in museum exhibitions, and is in museum, corporate, and private permanent collections in the US and Europe. Several of my colleagues here at AstroBin solicited my advise regarding moving their work into the fine art world, so I recently published a book on the topic, The New Art of Astrophotography. In addition to my experiences in the art world, I include interviews in the book with gallery directors, museum curators, astronomers, and artists to present a broad view on the subject. From what I can see, astrophotgraphy is now considered a category of fine art photography in some of the art world, but it is still emerging and evolving. To your point, it is not common yet, but it is getting there.
CS, Gary
Glad to hear this. A long-time coming. I’m preparing a portfolio of 13×19 astrophotographic prints to take over an art gallery not far from where I live. I have no idea whether they’ll be interested, but I’ll find out.
Best of luck with your presentation, Jerry. I found that a strong relationship with the gallery is an important starting point for representation. It took nearly a year of testing different print, framing, and size approaches to finally find the formula for the gallery in Carmel. Since the work has been hung, I have had good sales every year for five years (in fact, the Carmel gallery has sold 5 pieces in the last 4 weeks). The regular sellers have been 30"x40" - 45"x 60" acrylics, and 30"x40" watercolor prints in floater frames. You might want to share that with the gallery that you are approaching.
That’s good information to know, thanks Gary. I’m going to speak to them fairly soon to gauge their interest and see what requirements they have. I assume you take your files to a printer, unless you have a 30×40” printer in your home or workspace. I have a 13”x19” at home and will see if that’s a viable print size, it may not be.
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Jerry Gerber:Gary Lopez · Oct 3, 2025, 05:44 AMJerry Gerber:Gary Lopez · Oct 2, 2025, 02:24 PMKeith Hanssen:
It’s an interesting question - is astrophotography art? The same can be asked of photography. Both are an expression of an individual’s feelings to some degree, so yes, both are technically “art”. Anything meant to convey a feeling can be considered art. Strange to know there are no Astro photos in art galleries. I’m sure this will change.
Actually, Keith, my work has been represented by two commercial art galleries for five years, Gallery Sur in Carmel, CA, and Waterfall Gallery in NYC. My work has also been included in museum exhibitions, and is in museum, corporate, and private permanent collections in the US and Europe. Several of my colleagues here at AstroBin solicited my advise regarding moving their work into the fine art world, so I recently published a book on the topic, The New Art of Astrophotography. In addition to my experiences in the art world, I include interviews in the book with gallery directors, museum curators, astronomers, and artists to present a broad view on the subject. From what I can see, astrophotgraphy is now considered a category of fine art photography in some of the art world, but it is still emerging and evolving. To your point, it is not common yet, but it is getting there.
CS, Gary
Glad to hear this. A long-time coming. I’m preparing a portfolio of 13×19 astrophotographic prints to take over an art gallery not far from where I live. I have no idea whether they’ll be interested, but I’ll find out.
Best of luck with your presentation, Jerry. I found that a strong relationship with the gallery is an important starting point for representation. It took nearly a year of testing different print, framing, and size approaches to finally find the formula for the gallery in Carmel. Since the work has been hung, I have had good sales every year for five years (in fact, the Carmel gallery has sold 5 pieces in the last 4 weeks). The regular sellers have been 30"x40" - 45"x 60" acrylics, and 30"x40" watercolor prints in floater frames. You might want to share that with the gallery that you are approaching.
That’s good information to know, thanks Gary. I’m going to speak to them fairly soon to gauge their interest and see what requirements they have. I assume you take your files to a printer, unless you have a 30×40” printer in your home or workspace. I have a 13”x19” at home and will see if that’s a viable print size, it may not be.
I also have small printers in my studio that print 13"x19" and 17"x22", and a wide variety of print media, especially fine art papers. I use the printers in my studio to experiment and dial in the image file for the print media. The final print file then goes to one of three labs with whom I've worked and have calibrated my printers against theirs. The challenge is that I am dialing in my print file using a inkjet printer, but my final art is being printed with a C-type process printer (e.g., Chromira) that is an optical and wet print process. The big advantage of printing with this approach is that while inkjet printer are 8 bit, C-type printing is 14 bit, giving a much richer tonal range which makes a big difference in larger prints. I hope this helps.
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