The history of fine art photography

Abstract

Art is a subjective term as it is subject to personal taste and opinion. It is impossible to definitely derme what art is. In fme art photography there is no distinctive subject matter, there is no one thing that is photographed like with other fields of photography. Art is not guided by any specific rules or techniques. Any subject can be photographed or explored. It is a favourable opinion that fme art is about personal expression, emotion and symbolism. Fine art is more about the way the artist sees his subject than it is ahout the subject itself (Leggat, 1999:1). Photographic art comprises those images that meet the criteria of any visual art. The basic nature of photography is first, its registration and second, the artist's choice and control of the pictorial elements. For photography to be transformed into art, the observable world must be seen artistically (Kaufman, 1989:3). When photography used the conventions of painting, either replicating subject matter or simulating painterly effects, it achieved limited success. The result was found to be either artificial or unacceptable to the medium's unique potential to record facts. Pictorialism was responsible for gaining photographs entry into art museums around the world, despite its drawbacks. It also paved the way for photographs to be included in fme art exhibitions and in determining that photography was noljust a mechanical process but a creative art form (McAdam, 2003: 1). In the earliest stages of the history of photography there already existed a strong conflict with regard to photography being a science or an art (Leggat, 1999: I).