The invention of the camera changed the face of history of art. The first photographic process took place in 1839 and allowed , even taught, people how to see. The camera gained grounds in teaching and understanding perspective in an image, and allowed artists to capture their subject instead of having to sit in front of it and be at the mercy of the weather, the time, or agitation.
One of the most interesting and in some ways poetic aspects of photography as an art is that it is forever changing. A photograph does not capture or represent its subject as a whole but rather its subject caught in a moment in time. As all other things, photographs can be bias as the person behind the camera decides what to capture and so forth, but it is quite beautiful that photography is a fluid and moving form of art.
It would be unfair to compare photographers to painters or sculptors because the skill set is so very different. However, there is a connection between the two in that many photographers are influenced by artists and their work. In 1853 at a meeting about whether or not photography was an art, it was said that it cannot be an art because it failed to “elevate the imagination”. This view has changed dramatically as soon after, photographs proved to depict far more than their literal subject. If one thinks of photo essays, photo documentaries, and even surrealist photography, there is a huge range of genres that the camera can create and many stories that a single image may tell.
Art itself rejects definition. Art cannot be bound by a particular set of rules or descriptions. Perhaps then, art is in the eye of the beholder. Photography can be seen as an art form and as an industry and invention that has created beauty, saved lives, introduced us to things unknown, record history, and far more. Photography is fluid, it is always changing. This characteristic makes it a close cousin or friend to art as it is searching, always.
Personally, photography is not my day job. I am always walking around or sitting down and visualising how a would capture something that I am seeing. Due to the thought process that goes on behind my photographs, I consider it an art – it all depends on how you define art.
