John Szarkowski Introduction to the catalog of the exhibition, The Photographer's Eye

            As with any new invention, photography, from the beginning of its time, has progressed and developed into a very successful art form. The Photographer’s Eye describes that in the beginning photography wasn’t considered an art form, but was developed by scientists and painters. Painting was the primary documentation of stories and tales until photography started to grow. While an artist could draw an object from many perspectives, a photographer could take into consideration different variables such as facial gestures, weather, and light.

            Photography took off and was very popular among amateurs and artists alike. Suddenly people who were ‘nobody’ could be documented. Simple techniques such as cropping and putting a frame around two random people suddenly form a relationship between the two. Painters did not have the luxury of changing and duplicating their art because of its permanence.

            All in all there seems to be two different ways to look at photography: as an art form, or not. The early artists along with some artists today feel as though photography is not an art, but simply a form of documentation. It seems to not take as much skill to point and shoot, rendering it talentless. There are those however that argue photography, through its many vantage points, has opened the eyes of humans to what we see in everyday life. We may not have been able to view the world in this way had it not been for photography. It is up to individuals to pick one side of the argument.

Shelby