The History of Photography

Without light, photography wouldn't exist. To understand why light is important to a photograph, you must understand how an image is captured onto film.

The film placed in the camera is photosensitive material, which means "a material sensible to light".

Film is basically material that reacts in a way that when light rays hit it, an image forms.

Light comes in a variety of forms.

A) Sunlight is natural light that comes from the sun and cannot be created by people. It can be manipulated through the time of day, affecting that quality of a photo.

B) Overcast skylight is related to sunlight, but it is different in many ways. It doesn't create harsh shadows because the clouds are blocking the sun, giving a dramatic look to photographs. And finally.

C) artificial light is the toughest type, because unless you have incredibly bright searchlights, a reasonably fast lens, and a tripod, you might get a good exposure. Photography starts with an inspiration, and its quality is determined through the final product. The process of photography is to be taken seriously, from beginning to end.

4. Photography as a Fine Art form

Fine art photography refers to photographs that are created to fulfill the creative vision of the artist. Fine art photography stands in contrast to photojournalism and commercial photography. Photojournalism provides visual support for stories, mainly in the print media. Commercial photography's main focus is to sell a product or service. Compared to most art forms, photography is a relative newcomer. Having been around for less than 200 years its place in the art world is still being established. Interestingly, there have been many arguments against photography being considered as an art, one of which is that the camera is a `machine'. However, one must ask if a camera is any more a machine than a musician's instrument, a sculptor's chisel or a painter's brush? Sculptor's chisel or a painter's brush? Another argument is that because of the nature of photography, endless prints can be made from the one negative. While true, it is for this reason that many photographers will produce their work as limited editions just as screen-printers, etchers and wood-block artists will. Some photographers have even been known to destroy their negatives after they have completed printing the edition. However, the ability to produce numerous prints is usually considered part of photography's uniqueness.

Historically, many photographers themselves once considered photography a lesser art form. Successful attempts to make fine art photography can be traced to Victorian era practitioners such as Julia Margaret Cameron, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, and Oscar Gustave Rejlander and others. In the U. S. F. Holland Day, Alfred Steiglitz and Edward Steichen were instrumental in making photography a fine art, and Steiglitz was especially notable in introducing it into museum collections. Called `Pictorialists' these photographers produced work using soft focus, and often, poor quality, lenses hoping their work would look like Imressionism paintings. Although the Pictorialists won a small battle in having photography recognized and given wall space, they certainly didn't help win the war of photography being recognized purely on its own artistic merits. There is a great quote that states: "There is no art, only artists". Very true words, as there are many great artists who use photography as their chosen medium. It would be very hard for people to argue that the landscape and nature work of Ansel Adams the natural world, nudes and still life's of Edward Weston. The abstract forms and textures of Brett Weston and the compositions of Paul Strand are not art. Because of the passion and extremely high quality work produced by these and other American photography pioneers, the American public and those within art circles could no longer deny that photography was a valuable and expressive art form. Oddly, Europe never seemed to have any trouble accepting photography as art. The work of Henri Cartier-Bressen, Brassai, Latrigue and others has always been held in the highest esteem.

Unfortunately, Australia hasn't had a large exposure to photography as an art form and we seem to be going through similar arguments that were common in America more than 50 years ago. Hopefully Australia will follow suit in the near future as there are increasingly more talented artists emerging in the field of photography.

The modern-day ease of photography has also led to a lot of very poor photographic work being passed off as art. Automated cameras have also lent considerable weight to the argument that it's the camera doing the work, not the so-called artist. It is little wonder that many gallery owners are reluctant to give wall space to photographs. It must be remembered that the camera doesn't make a good photographer any more than a piano makes a good pianist or a brush makes a good painter. An artist is an artist no matter what the medium.

Thus, gradually photography emerges into an art. What constitutes a fine art photograph would be quality: quality in composition, quality in the negative and quality in the print. Edward Weston once said that, "composition is the best way of seeing". Like other mediums, how the image is composed is of vital importance regarding how the print will be viewed. The photographer then needs to be able to put onto film what he or she is seeing and `visualising' for the final print. Lens choice, film choice, aperture and shutter speed relationships, what to exposure for and which filters to use (especially for black and white film) all play a vital part in what the final print will look like. Finally, the photographer needs to bring that `feeling' and expression out in the `fine' print using a very demanding darkroom technique.

Fine art photography is an entire subject on its own. The secret to creative photographs is not always in the meticulous planning and perfect coordination. To be a good photographer one would need to have a creative streak and also excellent powers of observation. Some of the secret tips to photography would remain in being in the right place at the right time. Be it fashion, nature, portrait photography, or even photojournalism, the main undercurrent of all is to have an ability to visualize and capture the frame in the best way possible.

Fine art photography is also known as art photography. Although the basics of any kind of photography is to keep it simple, the images in fine art photography are carefully planned and are a result of the creative vision of any photographer. Many images are like a work of art in itself. It is on the same lines of abstract art. The result is always breathtaking and different from the way a common man would perceive a subject. Normal objects or simple scenarios are transformed into a beautiful canvas with the creative visualization of fine art photographers. It has seen many trends from the olden days till date. Photography in itself is an art but fine art photography would require you to apply more thought and visualization skills to create a work of art. Of course, this would not always mean that these photographs have to be staged, though the current trends in this form of photography are on similar lines. Such staged photographs have gained prominence due to the works of Cindy Sherman and Gregory Crewdson.

Ansel Adams was fond of saying that the negative is like a musician's score and the print is like their performance. Good photographers will know how to do both very well: photograph to produce good negatives and then make an expressive print that conveys what they saw and felt at the time of exposure. A photographer will go through a few stages before arriving at the fine print. This begins with making a `proof print' of the negative and evaluating it to determine how best to properly print from it. The photographer then moves through a series of `work prints' as he or she fine-tunes the print exposure, cropping and contrast. More often than not, certain areas of a print will require more or less exposure than other areas. Giving more exposure to specific parts of the print, `burning', will darken those areas. Holding back exposure on that the print is as expressive as possible, they will make a `fine print' using their (often) extensive notes regarding dodging, burning and contrast.

Most fine art black and white photographers will use fibre-based paper for their fine prints. Fibre-based paper tends to have the edge over its cheaper cousin resin-coated paper. Fibre-based paper also has more archival permanence, however, modern resin-coated papers claim to be the same. Fibre-based paper is harder to print on successfully, however, generally looks better, is preferred or demanded by museums and galleries and is also somewhat demanded by photographic tradition. Good photographers will have no qualms about this and would feel as though they were cheating if they produced their work on resin-coated paper.

There are myriad other variables in fine art photography that include: choice of film developer, choice of paper brand, choice of paper developer and whether to tone the print. All affect the look of the final print and it is the experience of the photographer to know how best to pull all these together to produce a print worthy of being called `art'. The fight to certify photography as a fine art has been among the medium's dominant philosophical preoccupations since its inception. Photography's legitimacy as an art form was challenged by artists and critics, who seized upon the mechanical and chemical aspects of the photographic process as proof that photography was, at best, a craft. Perhaps because so many painters came to rely so heavily on the photograph as a source of imagery, they insisted that photography could only be a handmaiden to the arts. To prove that photography was indeed an art, photographers at first imitated the painting of the time. Enormous popularity was achieved by such photographers as O.J. Rejlander and Henry Peach Robinson, who created sentimental genre scenes by printing from multiple negatives. Julia Margaret Cameron blurred her images to achieve a painterly softness of line, creating a series of remarkably powerful soft-focus portraits of her celebrated friends. In opposition to the painterly aesthetic in photography was P.H. Emerson and other early advocates of what has since become known as "straight" photography. According to this approach the photographic image should not be tampered with or subjected to handwork or other affectations lest it lose its integrity.

Emerson proposed this philosophy in his controversial and influential book, Naturalistic Photography (1889). Appropriately, Emerson was the first to recognize the importance of the work of Alfred Stieglitz, who battled for photography's place among the arts during the first part of the 20th cent.

Seeking to determine the particular aesthetics of photography, the American Berenice Abbott and the Frenchmen Eugene Atget, Andre Kertesz, and Henri Cartier-Bresson developed intensely personal styles. The exponents of surrealism in France and of futurism in Italy and the various German art movements that were focused in the Bauhaus all explored the medium of photography. The international exhibition "Film und Foto", held in Stuttgart in 1929, helped to make formal a purely photographic aesthetic. The works exhibited combined elements of functionalism and abstraction.

Photographic subject matter shifted from the past to the present-a present of new forms in machinery and architecture, new concern with the experience of the working classes, and a new interest in the timeless forms of nature. In California during the 1920 and 1930.

Edward Weston and a handful of kindred spirits founded the 64 group, taking their name from the smallest lens opening, that which provides the greatest precision of line and detail. This small and unofficial group-which included Imogen Cunningham, Ansel Adams, and Willard Van Dyke-came to dominate photographic art, overshadowing the pictorial aesthetic. They and their imitators eschewed all post-exposure handwork, and worked with 8 ? 10-in. view cameras in order to obtain the largest possible negatives from which to make straightforward contact prints. They limited their subject matter to static things: the still life, the distant or closely viewed landscape, and the formal portrait. The influential teacher Minor White became known for his poetic, visionary work related in technique to this straight approach. Bad weather has made the sun shine on British photographer Craig Easton. His evocative, moody images of the `dreich' - an old Scottish word to describe wet, miserable, dank weather - have secured him this year's Cutty Sark award for the overall winner of the Travel Photographer of the Year awards. The exhibition of the winning photographs runs from July 12 to August 18 2013.

Photography has struggled, through one and a half centuries, now, to place itself as a fine art. To many people, photography has seemed to be merely a reproductive medium. The medium and the work were clear, but the role of the photographer as an artist was not. Many people assumed that the photographer was simply a technician who "operated the medium" and, in that way, produced a photograph. Could the photograph be construed as an art work? Many of the great photographers of the late 19th Century and early 20th Century attempted to validate photography as a fine art by intentionally producing images that were softly focused and imitated contemporary techniques in painting. Alfred Stieglitz, one of the most vocal advocates of photography as a fine art and publisher of an influential magazine, Camera Work, used these so-called the time. On the other hand, Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, and others founded a group of photographer-artists, called the f/64 group, who created extremely sharp and detailed images with the explicit intention of demonstrating that photography could be legitimately artistic even when using its medium in the most physically exacting and "realistic" way. The photographic art work, or image, is usually a fine print that has been mounted, framed, or published in a book. Part of the confusion about photography as an art arises because most prints appear to be straight replications of reality. It would seem that the photographer is just an "operator" of photographic equipment which "lifelessly" reproduces some real scene onto a permanent picture. Ansel Adams, for instance, was constantly accused of being a mere replicator of natural scenery, a realist copier. As an audience, we could be thrilled by Adams's landscapes, but many were skeptical that Adams had anything very much to do with these images, more than getting the camera to the right place at the right time. Only by looking carefully at what Adams actually did will we truly understand where artist and technician part company. Adams was a perfectionist in technical matters but he was also a very sophisticated artist. Images that seem to be mere replicas of reality were usually manipulated substantially in both camera work and darkroom processing.

The new-age art which can't exist and be popularized without photography is body-art. Body Art is art on, using or involving the body. Throughout history, one of the most popular artistic mediums has been the body, from body scarring and piercing to face painting and tattooing. In addition to tattooing and body painting, body piercing is another popular form of self-beautification and symbolism. Body piercing involves puncturing a hole somewhere in the body where jewellery or some form of adornment can be placed through. The most common form of body piercing is ear piercing. Some other popular body parts for piercing are: eyebrows, nose, lips, navel, nipple & genital areas. Reasons for piercing vary from person to person. Some are motivated by religious or spiritual reasons or simply want to express themselves. Others do it for sexual pleasure or to create a response from others. Body art is a form of expression all throughout the world but sometimes you only want the art on your skin for the night, not forever. Temporary tattoos are a great for this. They work well to complete a costume look and are equally popular with everyday outfits. Some people have religious or spiritual motivations or simply want to express themselves or share their beliefs. Body Art is a great way to achieve this and photographs are the best means to popularize this.

As printing technologies have improved since around 1980, a photographer's art prints reproduced in a finely-printed limited-edition book have now become an area of strong interest to collectors. This is because books usually have high production values, a short print run, and their limited market means they are almost never reprinted. The collector's market in photography books by individual photographers is developing rapidly. Throughout the twentieth century, there was a noticeable increase in the size of prints. Small delicate prints in thin frames are now a rarity, and hi-gloss wall-sized prints are common. There is now a tendency to dispense with a frame and glass and instead to print large pictures onto blocked canvas.

Conclusion

As it was mentioned above photography is a process frequently used in areas of media, art, and science as well as practical everyday use. It is used to inform society of different issues, used to document a wide range of things and is used to capture everyday memories for the years to come. It is used everywhere in today's society and through technology has advanced tremendously since its beginnings.

The social context of the invention of photography is important. Today it is obvious that our modern life can't be imagined without photography.

Photography permeated into nearly all spheres of our existence. There were no personal documents such as passport and many others without photography. Investigation of criminal cases would be inconceivable if there were no photographs. Besides, in the last few decades of the twentieth century photography have claimed itself as an art. Notwithstanding that the role of photography concerning documentary may be considered as irreplaceable so in the art it is still dubious. To tell the truth since the invention of photography the art have lost its uniqueness. Nowadays it is a simple task to multiply any masterpiece of any painter. Many masterpieces were turned into a trite things. It is a pity but we are obliged to state with bitterness that such tendencies hurled the young generation (teenagers as well as older once) to know price of everything and value of nothing. Although it is needful to confess that at the same time photography give birth to entirely new arts the most conspicuous example of which is body-art. Today this type of art in its many varieties can be observed in different shows, flash-mobs or even during acts of protestations. Surely we may state this art had taken a solid place among entertaining arts. Thus, the beauty of a human body was once more underlined by the aid of photography in our modern times. Photography in a great deal have simplified the work of model's attitudinizing. Thanks to photography in our days we have the best possibility to observe the beauty of a human body.

Undoubtedly it must be admitted, photography and cameras have had a profound affect on painting, starting at least as early as the 15th Century. As a tool, a very ancient device called the Camera Obscura (Latin for dark chamber or room) was used by artists to project an image of a scene outside onto the opposite wall (either a pinhole or a simple convex lens could be used). The artist in the dark chamber could trace the projected image to get more accurate spatial perspective than previously possible. Whenever any new technology is developed there is always a fear that the new will totally supplant the old. Painters were undoubtedly initially concerned that their art would no longer be needed or wanted, depriving them of a livelihood. For example, when television was invented, it was immediately announced that it would utterly replace both radio and movies. It has done neither.

When chemical photography was invented in the early 19th Century, the "conventional wisdom" was that it heralded the doom of painting. It has never done so, nor do I believe it ever will. But many painters were, and continue to be quick to utilize photography as a tool. One of my favorite examples is the great American realist painter Thomas Eakins. Eakins was not only a gifted painter, but he often started a work with a photograph or series of photographs that he would make to conceptualize his idea.

He was also influenced in his own work by Edward Muybridge, who pioneered motion studies in photography. Muybridge's photographs of running horses had a profound influence on sculptors and painters who could render more realistic horses than ever before.

But why paint when you can point? If for only one reason, paintings are far more permanent than most photographs, especially color. There is a reason why governors and presidents are immortalized in paintings. They are of course photographed as well, many, many times, but nothing replaces the Official Painted Portrait, expected to last for centuries, which nowadays is often painted by the artist from a series of photographs.

What a new technology the future would bring for us? What a new transformation are hidden in store for photography? These questions shall be answered in the near future. For now, we may say for certain whatever it would be this undoubtedly would have the influence on general conception of art and as a consequence on the course of our life.

List of Literature

1. Gernsheim, H. and J.M. Daguerre (1956).

2. Buckland, G., Fox Talbot and the Invention of Photography (1980).

3. Gautrand, J.C., Hippolyte Bayard: naissance de l'image photographique (1986).

4. Busch, B., Belichtete Welt: Eine der Photographie (1989).

5. Schaaf, L.J., Out of the Shadows: Herschel, Talbot and the Invention of Photography (1992).

6. Batchen, G., Burning with Desire: The Conception of Photography (1997).

7. Marignier, J.L., Niepce: Invention of Photography (1999).

8. Bajac, Q., The Invention of Photography: The First Fifty Years, trans. R. Taylor (2002).

9. Light, K., Witness in our Time: Working Lives of Documentary Photographers (2000).

10. B. Newhall, The History of Photography: 1839 to the Present Day (5th ed. 1988).

11. J. Szarkowski, Looking at Photographs (1999).

12. M.J. Langford, Basic Photography (2001).

13. T. Ang, Digital Photography.

14. E. Morris, Believing Is Seeing: Observations on the Mysteries of Photography (2011).

15. V. Goldberg, Photography in Print (1988).

16. W.J. Mitchell, The Reconfigured Eye: Visual Truth in the Post-Photographic Age (1993).

17. G. Batchen, Burning with Desire: The Conception of Photography (1999).

Annex 1

аrt image photography

Picture - The art-picture of village winter landscape:

Annex 2

Picture - The models painted in a colourfull composition:

Annex 3

Picture:

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