Is Photography an Art Essay

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Keller: The History of Photography

Keller’s (1984) essay on “The Myth of Art Photography” was written before the explosion of Internet photography and this is evident in quotes such as: “The strategic purpose behind this generous sponsorship of Art Photography was, of course, to persuade the ordinary amateur that he too, could produce ‘artistic’ wonders - if he only invested enough money in technical equipment” (p. 268). Keller argues that the explosion of the photography industry and the elevation of photography to an art form has a commercial basis, in other words, to sell photography equipment. Photography has the seductive allure of allowing anyone the illusion that he or she can become an artist simply by purchasing a camera, in contrast to the decades needed to learn the fine art of sketching and painting by hand.

Of course, today, all an amateur photographer needs is a camera phone and an Instagram account to generate interest in his or her art. While better equipment and photo-editing software may be helpful, professional photographers are threatened as iPhone photos threaten to overtake their professional work because of their lack of expense. The same types of arguments that Keller was making against photography in general are now made against iPhone photography by professional photographers.

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There is a similar, dismissive attitude taken by Keller in relation to artistic photography as a concept, ironically, in the eras before photography became so easy and commonplace. Keller considers the appropriate role of photography to be relegated to personal snapshots and capturing intimate moments purely for the family. Instead, “it is obvious that the massive support of the big manufacturers blew an essentially modest and marginal amateur movement out of proportion” clearly considering his own evaluation of the merits of photography to be unbiased (Keller, 1984, p. 269).

Keller does admit that the rise of amateur art photography does lie in opposition to “Romantically-exaggerated ideas of artistic genius” that suggested that pursuing the arts should be relegated only to certain, select groups of individuals (Keller, 1984, p. 52). The rise of juried exhibitions of artistic works of photography were designed to exist as gatekeeping functions, to ensure that photography was indeed enshrined as an art form. The concept of high art as something which must be determined by experts was effectively designed to keep professional artists in business and to perpetuate the divide between so-called real….....

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