The Evolution of Photography

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  The Evolution of Photography

Over the past century, the pastime of taking photos grew and eventually was accepted into the category of art. How? Well, many people and events pushed and pushed for photography to become the next big form of art; and over the course of one hundred years, it did! This source is a essay written by Dr. Juliana Kreinik for the website Khan Academy, which is an organization made to educate readers on all sorts of different topics. This post will focus on how and why photography developed into an art rather than a pastime.

In the beginning of the twentieth century, photography started to become more accessible to the general public, resulting with a new wave of creative ideas for photography and new minds to pave the future of the hobby. As more people received the privilege to take photos, they started developing styles and different techniques to taking photos.  Eadweard Muybridge was one of the first people to officially develop a specific style of taking photos. He photographed the locomotion of human and animal movement. As time went by, photos started to become more artistic rather than just a hobby or capturing a moment. But how would photography be considered art? It didn't have brushes, pens, or pencils. All it was was pressing a button to capture a scene. Well, eventually photos became more appealing to large groups and were presented as art, and finally the art community hesitantly accepted it as art. As the world wars rolled by, photographers and artists all flooded to the battlefields. They teamed up and combined their skills to document the wars from the art world’s point of view. They desired“to create art that was as radical and “new” as modern life itself”(Khan Academy). One can infer that artists saw themselves as an exclusive community specific to drawing, painting, and sculpting physical items. Once photography sought to find a place in that community, they felt threatened, but finally caved and created the outline of the art community we see today. In all, photography was only a tool to capture family pictures and simple scenes, but as time went on, people paved the way for photography to be considered a form of art. Next time you walk through an art museum, take thought of the effort it took for the photos on the walls to be placed there.

My next post will focus on how photography informs people about real time events and about events in the past.