At Olympics, the line between photo and painting can blur

BEIJING -- A photograph is not a painting. A painting is not a photograph. Yet in the right situation, in the right hands, the two can approach each other and, in the best circumstances, seem to merge.

Add to that the unremitting scenes of dynamic motion that the Olympics provide — dramatic backdrops, unexpected moves, impossibly fit bodies performing at the height of their capacities — and you have a recipe for the arresting collision of news and aesthetics, of photography and art.

In short: Through the eyes and lenses of Associated Press photographers who are training their eyes on the arenas of competition at the Beijing Games, sometimes true magic can happen.

“Some of these photos, you can't get around it, they look like paintings,” says Denis Paquin, who would know. He has overseen AP's Olympic photo report for more than a decade and has viewed thousands of images over the past two weeks.