Art History Journal

Photography

Photography had a huge impression on art history. Early photographers captured images of flowers, landscapes, loved ones, death, and beauty of all kinds that the world had never seen. With a photograph, scenes can be revisited from thousands of miles away or throughout the whole city.

While looking for examples, I was fascinated by this photogenic drawing. I believe that some such as this one qualify as fine art. Fine art has been impacted by photography in many ways. A photograph gave the artist the areal perspective. By taking a picture of his subject, an artist is able to refrence it whenever he'd like. David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson used 40 second exposures to take portaitures that were considered better than paintings done by Rembrandt. Pictures taken in in 40 seconds. Actress Sarah Bernhardt(right) achieved stardom in Paris and left timesless by the many posters she was in. The painter now had to compete with perfect pictures. Civil War scenes, staged by Mathew Brady have a fine art quality and beauty, despite the tragic scenes. Many early photographs posses a timeless quality. After George Eastman introduced his Kodak Camera in 1888, fine artists began to dab in impressionism and color to mix things up again.

Illustraitors got the shorter end on the invention of photography. They strived to keep up with this new phenominon. At the same time they got the same benefits as fine art such as perspective and pictures to work from. From pictures, illustrators learned a new view. A way to use the space on their canvas to bring their pictures to life and set a scene that is "picture-esque" Pictures in newspapers and books were being reproduced from photographs instead of illustration. Illustrators began to create works of fantacy and things that could not be captured on "film"

Photographs added a whole new element to graphic design. Pictures could be arranged in any way that the designer pleased and reprinted to create a deceptive scene. This is both good and bad. Like Mathew Brady staging his photographs, you cannot tell what is real and what is not. This wonderful thing can lie! Collage-type posters and graphic art became popular. Bringing elements from differant photos togeather can create something beautiful and fantastic that you would never or just may not have had a chance to gaze upon.

Designers, fine artists , and illustraitors all gained something from photography. Today, you can find billions of photos online. Photographs are still a very important means of recollection, documentation, referance, ideas, inspiration, and art. Photography triggered many innovations in science, biology, and later gave way to motion pictures.