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Photography Art

Can Photography be considered as an Art?

This question is debated all over the world and it receives mixed responses. There are some treatises that conclude that it is while other dissertations argue that it isn't. A briefing regarding these responses has been provided below.

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Photography has been an important but controversial section of arts for at least the past 150 years. However, no conclusion has been reached whether it can be regarded as an art or a new form of documentation that can be viewed by the eye and not by the mind.

Views against Photography as an Art

Some photographers, painters and critics have developed the following views about photography.

• Photography cannot be regarded as an art due to the following facts
• A mechanical device is used in this process
• Physical and Chemical phenomenon are part of this process
• There is no element of inspiration or use of hand
• The creativeness in drawing and painting is much more and nowhere close to that in photography
• Photography is identical to lithography and etching
• Photography is beneficial to arts and culture

There is a theory that states that artists must add their own spirit in their creation. Now, a photographer uses a mechanical device to create an image. Is it observed that a photographer impresses his/her spirit in the finished photo?

Views for Photography as an Art

Some people contest that photography is an art as well as a science. It enables the photographer to express his/her emotions and feelings. However, to do so in an efficient manner it is mandatory to become skillful in the scientific section of the medium.

If one becomes adroit in the technical aspect of photography, he/she has dealt with only one section of this art. Such a person would give rise to technically excellent images that have a dearth of emotion and seeing qualities. An artistic photo results when the precise technique is utilized to express an emotion and a vision.

In a nutshell, technical photographers are capable of producing impressive work that deserves a place in the recordings that the world has. However, only artist photographers become successful in deriving images that can be placed in art salons and collections.

In 1839, the first 2 types of photographic images known as the Calotype and the Daguerreotype were invented. This led to a revolution in the perception of reality. This fulfilled the urge of the middle class for immediate images and entertainment. The patronage of this class towards photography increased in this era and many people began accepting photography as an art.

A renowned personality has said the following:-

Advertisement "The only impossibility to the art - if we are to believe some art critics who appear to have had little opportunity of observation - is that it can produce art; this little treatise contends that the camera is only a tool in the same that the brush is a tool, and one capable in the hands of an artist of conveying thought, feeling, expressing individuality, and also the usual attributes of art in their degree."