Photography in the 21st Century:

The Art of Memories

Introduction-Photography has evolved through the years as a modern

art form through the participation of the people.

I.Background

A. Definition

B. Functions

C. History and Inception

II.Nature and Extent

A. 20th Century, World Wars and Photography

B. The Use of Color Film

C. Digital Photography

D. The Internet and Photography

III.Solution

A. Functions

1. Commerce

a. Advertising

b. Forensics and Crime

c. Still-life (Food, Landscape and Wild-life)

d. Photojournalism

2. Social Uses

a. The Paparazzi

b. Lomography

c. The Headshot

d. Stock Photography

e. Photo Sharing and Editing (Blogs, Flickr Social

Networks, Adobe Photoshop)

Conclusion-Photography is continuously evolving into a modern art

form through technology which makes its use widespread in different

aspects of life.

Photography in the 21st Century:

The Art of Memories

Introduction

With its inception in the 19th century, photography has

awakened man in its dream of a technicolored world. Through the

lens, the world saw new ways of thinking-to educate, record events,

reflect, and show emotion and respect. Photographers and enthusiasts

led society in a new form of evolution in a way that memories are

considered as a tool to infer knowledge.

Time flies but photography has shown to us why it is so

indispensable in the process of human and social development.

Emphasis is shifted from art to social value, valuing photographers

not as artists but as sublimed educators. The development of

commerce gave every photo a price equivalent for its purpose and

photography is opened to new frontiers and markets. But with al its

development, photography has evolved into a modern art form

uprooted from its social origins, taking part the people who

participated in its blossoming.

Background

Photography was coined out from the Greek word “Phos”(light)

and “graphein”(to draw).Its main function is the production of a

negative or positive black and white or colored record in the form of

light upon a sensitive surface. The art can be pursued using a camera-

a box with lens and other parts arranged to project an image of the

scene to be recorded onto a sensitive film or plate.

Photography made its debut in 1839 when John Herschel made

the photographic process open to the public (Grolier,p-265).Since its

debut, the medium spread rapidly across Europe and America. The

field is dominated by French and American artists like D.O. Hill,

Gustave Le Gray, E.D. Balaus, Henri Le Becq, among others

(Rosenblum).

The late 19th century witnesses the work of photographers to

establish photography as a branch of fine art.Before the century

ended,hundreds of international societies for artistic photography

started to exist.Being considered as an art,beauty for photos is

favored against truth,and interpretation is emphasized

(Szarkowski).In this era the power of photography was realized as a

social force.

The 20th century triggered dramatic changes in the field.

Different historical events triggered a shift from artistic beauty to

emphasis on truth. Artists accepted new roles, mainly photojournalists

taking photos on different events then sending it to new groups for

immediate publication (Photojournalism, 272-273).This trend

benefited photographers until the 1950’s when creative initiative

shifted the focus once again.

Developments In technology opened photography to a wider

range of audiences. New devices like the digital camera and the

camera phone gave enthusiasts new ways to take photos and share

them on the Internet (Gutkowski and Van).The last decades of the

millennium also triggered photography to pursue new fields, including

lomography, digital art, and forensics, among others.

Nature and Extent

The first half of the 20th century saw disturbances in peace and

the rise of the two World Wars. In the United States and other

countries, the economy slumped to dramatic levels which resulted to

the so-called “Great Depression”. During the presidency of Franklin

Roosevelt he launched new projects to energize the economy and help

people financially. Photographers also benefited from these projects,

as quoted by Naomi Rosenblum:

In the United states in the 1930’s, photographers,

like other artists, benefited from the make-work

projects of the government. Many talented

photographers were employed by the Farm Security

Administration (FSA), Works Projects Administration

(WPA) and other federal agencies to record the life

of rural America-its embattled farmers, poor

shorecroppers, and migrant laborers (270)

As the world prospers in the 50’s and 60’s, the use of color film

in photography became rampant. Although the use of color was

discovered years back in 1907, its development only started in 1936

when rival companies Kodak and Agfa revealed their new techniques

in processing colored films. The technique uses three additive colors-

red, green and blue to produce colored images during processing.

These techniques were incorporated in the process until the 1970’s

when the Kodachrome became the new standard instead of the

original technique by Agfa. A similar technique wad developed also by

Polaroid in 1963, only making the processing of images instant.

In 1983, Sony introduced the first “digital” camera called

Mavica, the first camera to eliminate film in taking photos. This was

followed in 1990 by the Kodak DCS 100, the first commercially

available digital camera. These cameras replaced film using electronic

sensors recording a set of data into disks rather than processing in

through chemical means. This method allowed great manipulation of

images until it is printed for distribution.

Through the new technologies in photography many people

became involved in the art through point-ant-shoot cameras or camera

phones. Through the internet, many people grabbed the opportunity

to share their photos on blogs and social networks. New software

such as Adobe Photoshop also made the editing of images easier,

though with both positive and negative effects.

Solution

As the 20th century passed photographers tried to create

“niches” on different markets for different purposes. One sector that

benefited for this is the advertising sector through the steady flow of

talent available to promote their products and services. The

advertising industry, on this way turned to photography when it

discovered the photograph's power to convey the joys and benefits of

consumerism. Since World War II,a tremendous flow of money is

allocated for advertising, creating new jobs for new agencies and

publications. Romanticism and social issues were often used as a way

to make people aware of their advocacies, using the “reason-why”

principle to sell their products. (Rosenblum)

The rampant crimes also attracted photographers to pursue

forensic or “crime scene” photography. This type often uses black and

white or infrared images to record evidences of robberies and

murders. This became a great help to the police to be efficient in

solving crimes.

Photographers also turned to inanimate objects like food and

landscape as inspiration for their works. These separate niches are

often used for advertising or editorial purposes. Though the subject is

inanimate, this required the photographer a great amount to skill to

depict an image in a certain point-of-view. These can be considered as

a part of “still-life” photography where photographers arranged

inanimate elements to “make” a certain image rather than taking

them.

The media gained huge influenced in daily life through the use

of photography, too. Photojournalism, as it was called, is a particular

form of photography aimed to depict a certain story. Like normal

journalists, photojournalists are also exposed to certain elements such

as weather conditions and physical danger just to pursue a record of

an event. The power of photojournalism to influence human thought

and emotion can be reflected through a quote:

Although television reportage, may have, over time,

a cumulative effect (as it did in the Vietnam War),

the dramatic impact of the best pictures of

photojournalism is such that these are the images

that shape, for many people, their notions of the

important events of recent history, as well as their

ideas of the lives of the poor, the foreign, or the

strange and alien. (272-273)

The notion of the “paparazzi” can be inferred as a person who

candidly takes pictures of celebrities, politicians and other influential

and popular people. Unlike photojournalists, these photographers are

oftentimes work freelance in taking photos, creating images of people

that tend to be shocking or humorous. This image of the paparazzi is

highlighted from the show “TMZ”, Lady Gaga’s song of the same title

and even its connection with the death of Princess Diana.

Lomography and Headshot Photography can be considered

placed on two ends of the spectrum. Lomography, which was

introduced in 1991 in Austria, emphasizes casual and snapshot taking

of images to produce an over-saturated or “accidental” effect.

Headshot photography, on the other hand, is a technique which uses a

person’s face as a subject for photos with either glamorous or

practical purposes.

A new form of photography, called stock photography, is a niche

where images are licensed and distributed as requirement for creative

assignments. Photographers are often times paid with small royalties

in order for their images to be manipulated and distributed, often

times used in the advertising industry. This technique uses a wide

range of subjects from professionals to domestic animals highlighted

to possess stereotypical emotions.

The rise of social networking also made photo sharing and

editing easier than ever. The social networking site Facebook boasts

of 2.5 billion uploads of photos every month from their 350 million

active users. Another site, called Flickr, a photo uploading tool for

sharing and manipulation of images now holds 4 billion images as of

October 2009. The software called Adobe Photoshop is also very

popular for its immense editing capabilities.

As the 21st century passes more and more people discover the

power of photography to influence daily living. Technology has given

the art a new form of context, discovering new applications for

practical situations. From in its inception until now, photography has

served as a gateway to promote changes and instill change. With this

photography will remain as a social force, an art uprooted on its social

beginnings and heading towards a more socially knit world.

Works Cited

Adams, Ansel. The Camera. United States, 1981.

Butkowski, Joel, and Van, Kemper. Using Digital Cameras. United

States, 1981.

Crowen, George. How Photography Works. United States, 1986.

Mc Cary, Terry. “Shooting Stars”. Time Style, 2005.

Monheim.Fabian. Lomo: Don't Think, Just Shoot. United States, 2007.

Rosenblum, Naomi. A World History of Photography. United States,

1997.

Szarkowski, John. Photography until Now. United States, 1992.

“Photography”. Academic American Encyclopedia. Grolier

International, 1998.

“History and Art of Photography”. Academic American Encyclopedia.

Grolier International, 1998

“Photojournslism”. Academic American Encyclopedia. Grolier

International, 1998