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Can Photography be regarded as a valid Artform?
This entire article is © James
Wakefield 2002.
Reproduction Prohibited. All Rights Reserved.
Section Three: How Photography transformed the Art World
Whatever your views on photography as an art form, there
is no argument that photography has transformed the world and
role of art in the last 150 years.
Before the introduction of photography, the main role of artists
was to paint realistic portraits of those who could afford it.
This involved the subject remaining in the same position for
hours on end while the artist painstakingly transferred every
detail in front of him onto the canvas. As it required a lot
of time, effort and materials, it did not come cheap, and therefore
was only available to the very rich. The style associated with
this type of painting is known as ‘Realism’.
The introduction of photography provoked artists to change the
way they saw and made them re-examine the nature and potential
of paint as a medium, as photography was obviously more successful
in representing a scene, which raised the issue of the viability
of Portraiture. Photography had the ability to capture a moment
in time realistically, a feature that painting very obviously
lacked.
Photography may well have put artists at risk when it was first
introduced, but in truth, it released painting from it’s
responsibility as a realistic representative medium, allowing
artists to start experimenting and lead on to the endless styles
that came about as a result, particularly in the 20th Century.
Photography had five major roles in transforming the art world:
- It allowed painters to capture scenes that they would
not have been able to previously, such as an urban street image.
They could take the photo to the studio and work on it from
there.
- It allowed Portrait painters to abandon the lengthy sittings
that their subjects had to endure.
- It released painting from its responsibility as the primary
realistic representative medium, extending the scope for new
styles.
- It allowed artists from all over the world to view famous
artworks without the need for expensive travel to go and ‘see
the works’, due to the ease in which images could be reproduced.
- It (arguably) became an art form in it’s own right, with
photographers cropping up as artists, or as artists using the
medium in their work.
Continue to Section Four
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