What changes perspective in a photograph?
Nowadays, photography is more popular in art than ever, but the consciousness and acceptance of photography, as a medium for creation by other artists, galleries, editors, collectors, and the public was not easily won.
People's opinions on what photography can and cannot do or for and against photography like art have varied tremendously in the past, according to the modes and attitudes of the time, and photography has had different roles since it was invented.
During a large part of the 19th century, photographers were often perceived as a threat by painters, who never failed to emphasize publicly that these crass intruders had no artistic capacity or knowledge.
To a certain extent, that was the case – it took a little bit of chemistry to get results; but the knowledge of art also contributed to composition, illumination, and so on.
Art and Documentations.
In the first half of the 19th century, many people attempted to perfect photography, inventing different processes and techniques, but all had similar goals: produce the most realistic and detailed images by securing the created image inside the camera and doing what is now called "photograms".
The early photographs were considered miraculous and praised for their beauty and detail; they also required considerable skill and knowledge to produce. By the late nineteenth century, equipment and materials had become a little easier to manipulate, and photography was widespread all over the world and used for artistic purposes and to document people, places, and things.
In the early 20th century, instant cameras and development and printing services for enthusiasts made black-and-white photography fun for the masses.
Some ‘serious’ photographers felt the necessity of distancing themselves from all that and gaining acceptance as artists, so they tried. Reconciling the medium with the appearance and functions of the day's paintings.
These photographers were also trying to take back the ‘handmade' printing of the first photographs at a time when photographs were becoming machine-made mass products.
They called themselves "pictorial" photographers, shooters, and picturesque subjects, often using soft-focus camera accessories and printing on textured paper that eliminated most of the "ugly details" of photography.
Other photographers were more attracted to photography as a new and modern way of producing images and focusing on what they thought the photograph could do better than other traditional forms of representation.
They used new techniques for the mechanical reproduction of photos on the printed page and were influenced by the new popular culture and buy modern art as it became increasingly abstract.
Photographers saw painters focus on the qualities of painting and decided to focus on what photography could do, rather than trying to make images that looked like paintings.
In response to pictorialism, the «right» photograph became fashionable at the beginning of the 20th century in Europe and America. They used as much as possible the qualities of black and white photography which were previously condemned as without art: sharp focus all along, rich tonal scale, and the ability to shoot simple everyday topics using natural lighting and turn them into beautiful pictures.
Technical excellence was significant and rigorously enforced.
Photography had developed aesthetics, something completely distinct from painting and other forms of art.
The introduction of mechanically printed photographs into newspapers and magazines opened the press and candid photography market.
Photographs were taken for their action and content rather than for a highly envisaged treatment.
This and the freedom given by precision portable cameras led to a break with secular painted compositional rules.
The 1930s and 1940s marked the great period of expansion of magazines and photographic reports, before the emergence of television.
They have also seen a constant increase in professional aspects of photography: advertising; commercial and industrial applications; portrait; medical applications; science and aviation.