The Impact of Photography on Art

The argument could be made that the major difference between people of modern day and their counterparts from two hundred years ago would be technology. While human nature seems to change very little from time to time, or in different eras, technology changes the way that mankind lives and looks at the world. Such is the case with the invention of photography, which took place in the 1835, and grew to great popularity and widespread use by the end of the century. While it took some time for photography to develop as an art form, this new medium did have an impact on the artists of the day. I believe the reality of the new technology of photography influenced artists, and this influence can be demonstrated in the realist movements of the nineteenth century.

The two innovators who developed the modern format of photography were William Henry Fox Talbot and Louis J.M. Daguerre. In 1835, Talbot invented the negative-positive photographic process that enabled several prints to be derived from a single exposure. Daguerre used a light-sensitive metal plate method that developed a single exposure, and could not be reproduced (Fiero, p.763). The artistic process of photography is one that lends itself to realism, and many early photographers captured real life of the time with gritty, unforgiving photographs of the downtrodden underbelly of society. In doing so, they made bold social statements about the inequality, social ills and issues of the day.