The Influence Of Photography In The 19th Century

“To Plato, art was imitation of nature, but in the 19th century, photography took over that function, and in the 20th, abstract art overturned the whole notion that art was about representation. And although art meant skill early on, conceptual artists elevated ideas over execution. So what is art?” (Herman, "27 Responses”). The research question guiding this investigation is: How did the introduction of modern photography technologies, such as the digital camera and Photoshop, influence what is considered art in American society? For over 180 years, photography has been an important art form to the human race. It has been used for communication, expression, and overall fun. The perception of photography as an art form is a widely varied opinion.

Currently, photography is being used for many different purposes in many different ways. Moving from analog to digital technology was huge for the field of photography, for both artistic and practical purposes. However, according to article "The Next Revolution in Photography Is Coming” by Stephen Mayes, “it wasn’t until the arrival of the Internet-enabled smartphone that we really noticed a different behavior”. Digital photography is firmly set within our culture, failure to recognize this fact would be setting oneself outside of the cultural mainstream. This transition has been, surprisingly, smooth, with very few protestors of this new age. There have been some arguments about promiscuity and the problems that arise with manipulation, but overall the photographic community has accepted the change welcomingly. However, this change has not only affected the technological side of photography, it has affected the creativity of the photographers as a whole. The digitalization of photography has expanded the overall possibilities of what a photographer can do, imagination has reached beyond the confines of the two dimensional world. With the digital camera came endless, unexplored possibilities with very few limitations (Mayes, “Revolution in Photography”). This shift has changed the entire concept of photography. What began as a method of capturing real people and real things, has

Many feel that the digitalization of photography has taken away the true essence of the form, while others feel that the evolution has simply opened up more doors for photographers. When photography was first emerging as a medium, it was definitely not viewed as an art form. Photography began as a method of capturing life, its primary purpose was essentially showing the world realistic things realistically, such as humans or events. It was a way of capturing surface appearances seeing things. As it has evolved, from Camera Obscura to Brownie to digital, this purpose has changed. At an early meeting of a photography society in London, members disputed photography’s status as an art form because it was “too literal to compete with works of art because it was unable to elevate the imagination” (Prodger, "Photography: Is It Art?"). The conception of photography as a “recording medium” has never fully expired. While it definitely started out as a method of recording life, it has grown into something that can be used in an artistic sense. By the 1960s, it was still unpopular to view photography artistically, the idea of capturing more than just surface appearances out of favor (Prodger, "Photography: Is It Art?"). There are many photographers that set the foundation for getting photography accepted as an art form, but Alfred Stieglitz is the most responsible. Stieglitz, 1864-1946, was extremely