The history surrounding the photographic process is full of doubts and uncertainties, after many attempts, photography was finally declared an invention in 1839, and it was at this time that its role in art began to be discussed, a debate that endures to this day. At that time, several European and American publications investigated the topic to better understand the importance and impact of this novelty.
Photography began to become popular in the mid-19th century, which led to a transformation of behavior in relation to this medium; between 1840 and 1850, techniques began to be perfected, bringing with them a series of experiments and aesthetic advances. The idea that a photograph can be considered art and that photographers can be artists – those of the lower social classes, mainly this seemed absurd to some. art. ” Other critics, such as Englishman John Ruskin, believed that photography had nothing to do with art and would never replace it. This thought reduces photography to the simple functioning of your technical camera, which simply uses light to record parts of reality. Here was born the concept of documentary photography: a mechanical copy of reality that replaced the artist’s brush. Until then, Renaissance perspectives were present in geometric images.
- Some personalities stood out for rejecting this harsh vision and began to see photography as a way to create complex mixtures of imagination and reality.
- Such as Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-1879).
- The photographer began her career at the age of 48.
- And made a vast work for purely aesthetic purposes: she uses costumes.
- Scenic objects and differential focus.
- Creates portraits with diffuse contours and warm tones.
- And studies inspired by biblical.
- Literary and allegorical themes.
- Her work was so bold that the photographic community itself described her as an eccentric unable to properly use a camera.
The rejection of photography as art was so entrenched that the organization of the London International Exhibition of 1862 refused to show photographs in the same room dedicated to works of art, exhibiting them in the mechanical equipment section.
Only with the emergence of the pictorial movement in the 1890s did the subjective role of photography begin to be recognized. Pictorialism began in France, England, and the United States, bringing together photographers to produce what they called fine art photography. give your images a painterly look in an effort to turn your works into art.
Pictorial photography was characterized by the techniques and effects of graphic arts, providing the viewer with vibrant tones and a blurred appearance that it was intended to provoke. Many compositions portray the artistic gravity of contemporary symbolism as the emblematic? The wind harp? 1912 by Anne Brigman.
One of the most influential names in photography as an artistic movement was Alfred Stieglitz (1864–1946), an American who had a close relationship with Europe and directed Camera Work magazine, which published the best of artistic photography around the world. class (1907), published in Camera Work in 1911, is considered the first modern photograph.
The ability of photography to have its own aesthetics and enjoy the specific quality of the medium was extremely attractive to many American photographers: Edward Weston with still life and his almost abstract nudes, and Ansel Adams with his lyrical landscapes would long dominate American artistic photography. Period.
Across the Atlantic, World War I had a profound impact on artistic production. Dissatisfied, many artists have sought to develop techniques of pictorial expression to express the crisis of faith in traditional values decadent in this time of conflict. where the first photographs that invoked time, space and other abstract aspects were taken, and this radical spirit of innovation inspired cutting-edge artistic production from 1920 on. Photography began to be used by German Dadaists in works full of social criticism, by constructivists from the Soviet Union to develop new styles for a new society, by surrealists like Man Ray and by modernists from all over the world who celebrated the most diverse forms of art and design, it has become considered an excellent means of visual communication for the modern era. .
Was the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA) the ideological basis of modernism?The dominant avant-garde movement in the first half of the 20th century, which included art, design and architecture. MoMA organized a major photographic exhibition in 1937 and in 1940 opened its own photography department, however, it was only with John Szarkowski (1925-2007) as MoMA’s photographic curator in 1962 that photography was definitively incorporated into modernism. For him, legitimate photography? Direct? Democratic on issues and had a strong formal component. The photographs were not the work of the imaginary, but fragments of reality organized to reflect a personal point of view.
Thus, from the 1960s, with postmodernism, the last obstacles were removed, opening a space for photography to explore the possibilities of expression, taking advantage of the expansion of the media and the consolidation of mass culture, a period in which different artistic currents appear, such as pop art and minimalism, which also benefited the expansion of photography.
Here, photography assumes its role of coding and cultural significance, overcomes the feeling of simple mechanization of its equipment and conquers its long-awaited place in the art scene. Much of this photographic credibility comes from the work of the American William Eggleston.
PHOTOGRAPHY IN BRAZIL
Here, photography as art began to appear around 1939 with the organization of the first photoclubs that introduce modernism into Brazilian photography and reveal a whole generation of artists such as German Loca, Geraldo de Barros and Thomaz Farkas. The photographic process was based on experimentation, such as photo montages, collages and direct interventions on the negative. Daism and surrealism have been of great influence to these artists who have experimented with juxtaposition and alternative processes to give way to multiple meanings and deconstruct photography as a representation of reality.
With the 1964 military coup, photography moved back into the field of photoreporting and the author’s expression was inhibited; during this period, only a few photographers insisted on maintaining self-expression in their images, such as Anna Bella Geiger and Miguel Rio Branco. The final resurgence took place only with redemocratization, but with a contemporary reorientation of art in general.
In the 1990s, postmodern ideas advanced in the country and photography began to be used in the creative process, in fact, the subject has moved to the academic field, in 2002 the Ministry of Education approved the first photography license, created by the Senac. Sao Paulo. Currently, there are undergraduate and postgraduate courses throughout the country, allowing the development of a wide range of artistic works with solid research and study bases.
AND BEAUTIFUL ART IS PART OF THIS STORY?
With this trajectory and its consolidation as an art comes the photography of fine arts. The expression itself is already an old acquaintance in photographic medium, it is used both to designate an extremely specialized printing process and to designate the photographic exhibition circuit and the emerging market of photography collectors, however, there is another use of this term: it refers to the practice of photography without commercial bias, based strictly on the personal experience of the author , allowing a whimsical and playful tone in the productions.
Explaining how this more author photograph was born is no easy task, the term is rarely used in texts about contemporary photography or even art history, the pioneers of style are not easily found and the term itself, which has become very popular in the digital world. appears without apparent distinction on various websites and social networks.
While the term is common, you should understand the application of this penalty style. Among the photographers who call themselves “beautiful arts”, there is a large part of them working on the construction of stories, and they use the images to tell the Other considerable group is also inspired by painting and, finally, there are a growing number of disturbing photographers who use the term, in a completely wrong way, to refine their work.
Do you pay a little more attention to this context ?, it is possible to identify connections with better studied currents, allowing a better understanding of art photography on the contemporary stage.
Photographers from different industries have discovered this universe and have noticed the possibilities that the style of fine arts can bring to their work, even for commercial photography, but the lack of a solid theoretical framework, especially in Brazil, makes it difficult to study and distort meanings.
Thinking of this difficulty in understanding the true meaning of artistic photography, the International Institute of Photography (IIF), in partnership with photographer Danny Bittencourt, developed Photo Inspiration, the first international congress of artistic photography.
Born from the desire to expand discussion in the field of photography as art, Photo Inspiration’s main goal is to place photography in a more common and accessible place, the event seeks to draw a parallel between well-known segments of photography such as photojournalism. , documentary photography, landscape, architecture and portraiture as a language for an author’s field of expression.
It’ll be two days in this universe. On 23 and 24 January 2018, nine specially selected stakeholders will share their experiences, knowledge and impressions of this market with such possibilities.
Visit the website for more details: https://photoinspiration. com. br/
For any questions or information, please contact the organizers by email [email protected] or by phone (11) 3021-3335