PAINTING2PHOTOGRAPHY Assignment : Task 9 : Impact of Photography on Art

Traditionally artists were employed to paint pictures of people as a way of remembering them and preserving their appearence for years to come. The painter would ask the sitter to stay in the same place sometimes for hours or even days. Painting was also used for creating art pieces for the church, documenting the worlds political and historical events, and capturing areas of the world on paper which could then be shown to other parts of the world.

When photography was invented and went public in 1839, it was a huge threat to the livelihood of painters as people and things could be captured more quickly and cheaply than painters could. This was a huge disappointment to artists/painters as they felt their jobs were no longer wanted. However, photography gave them the freedom to express themselves using different styles of art and experiment with different techniques. They weren't constricted to having to truly represent people any more, and didn't have to rely on accuracy to make their money.

When the camera obscura was invented, artists used it as an aid to painting to help correct and perfect perspective. This enhanced the quality of artists work and therefore helped them develop further in their skills. They would transport the camera obscura around using sedan chairs, this meant that they could capture landscapes in more detail as well as people.

Because of photography, artists were able to express themselves more, which lead to lots of different art movements. The first art movement that came about where artists really started expressing themselves in different ways was Impressionism (around 1870-1880). One of the biggest names in the impressionist movement was Claude Monet. He branched out from the traditional representational style of painting and used expressive brush strokes and thicker amounts of paint than what would be considered normal at the time to create his beautiful images of water and landscapes. His pieces were still slightly representational but less accurate and showed off colour and texture rather than show an accurate life like representation of the subject.

Here is an example of one of Monet's most famous paintings. It was after this style was invented that artists really started thinking outside the box, and letting their imagination have no limits when it came to art and expressing themselves. 

Photography meant that paintings didn't have to be mass produced and time and money didn't have to be spent creating the same pieces over and over again, an original piece could be photographed and printed millions of times to cater to a mass audience. This way artists could create more publicity for themselves as their artwork could be seen by people further away than who could attend a gallery or exhibition of their work. Someone in a different country may see an artists work because of a photograph that had been taken and want to buy more of the artists work. 

Digital technology impacted photography when the digital camera was invented. Photographer's no longer had to be so frugal with their shots, they could take as many as they wanted and not have to worry about wasting film. If they didn't like an image, they could just delete it. They also no longer had to rely on printing in the dark room. This was both time consuming and expensive. Before digitalization, photographer's would spend hours and hours in the darkroom developing and printing negatives, this was no longer necessary as they could just take photographs onto a memory card in the camera and upload them straight to the computer.

The internet also made a huge impact to the life of a photographer. They could create websites to advertise their work and use emails to contact clients. The internet is also a great way of photographer's gaining more publicity and therefore hopefully more work for themselves, enabling them to create a better career and lifestyle for themselves.