Photography Touches The Lives Of Millions

By Author: Boyd Rankin
Total Articles: 77
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Today, photography touches the lives of millions, not only by crystallizing memories, but also as a powerful tool of communication. Newspapers, magazines and the television use photography to provide information and advertise myriads of services and products.

There is still a Controversy, saying neither the camera nor the brush creates art. Both are just tools. The Argument Continues that the camera, unlike the brush, is a complex pile of metal, glass and electronics. But practically speaking, Hundreds of people may use the same camera but few would produce worthwhile pictures. Even today, there are fewer good photographers than painters. The reason is simple. The instrument does not do the entire thing.
Is photography art?

Discussions are endless only concerning the camera, a machine in the hands of the photographer-not the marvelous things the machine is made to do by the photographer. Whenever this question about photography is discussed among photographers, painters and art critics, three distinct views come up for discussion.

The first view is that the camera is a lifeless object or is just a ...
... tool, with no inspiration of its own. The second is that Photography is not art because it is produced by a machine using a chemical process. The third argument is that photography is at best an aid to art because it is similar to lithography and etching. In the hands of the right person, whether used as a hobby or a career, even a camera can create a work of art.

As far as the actual image is concerned, photography is an instantaneous process. In recent years, the prestige of photography has suffered because of modern technology which has given a new tool, a kind of a super camera, in the hands of photographers called 'digital manipulation' using latest software's on a computer.
This has certainly damaged the integrity of photography and moved it further away from art.

Though this development has influenced the art world too, but the influence is more in the area where art works are used for promoting easy and effective communication as in advertising. The work of artists in its purest form still remains largely untouched by technology.

Edward Steichen put it well when he said:

"The photographer is served by a technique differing completely from that practiced by the painter, who begins with a blank surface and then by more or less complicated procedures, always under complete control, is able to achieve a growth and a realization of his concept. The photographer begins with a completed image; and compared with the painter the controls available to him are hardly worth the mention."

No matter whatever the arguments may be, it's obvious to accept that Photography Nowadays is widely recognized as a fine art too. Photographs are displayed in art museums, prized by collectors, discussed by critics, and studied in art history courses.

'The camera, like the brush, is just a tool of art'

Well, to conclude with, Photography has become an important Artistic tool that all sort of people, from Doctors to Film Makers "pursue to visualize us both technically as well as artistically".

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