Fine Art Photography

Fine art photography is photography created according to the artist's vision as a photographer. Using photography as a medium to bring to life something that only lives in the artist's mind. Capturing what you see in an artistic way is the art of photography and not creating art. The goal is to express an idea, message, or emotion. Fine art photography contrasts with representational photography, such as photojournalism, which provides a documentary visual description of specific subjects and events, literally depicting objective reality rather than the photographer's subjective intent; and commercial photography, whose primary goal is to advertise products or services.
History

One historian of photography stated that "the first exponent of 'fine art' or composition photography was John Edwin Mayall*, "who exhibited daguerreotypes illustrating the Lord's Prayer in 1851."1 Successful attempts at making photography fine art can be traced to Victorian-era practitioners such as Julia Margaret Cameron, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson and Oscar Gustave Rejlander and others. In the United States Fred Holland Day, Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Steichen were instrumental and instrumental in making photography a work of art, Stieglitz being especially notable in introducing it into museum collections.

In the United Kingdom, as recently as 1960, photography was not really recognised as part of the fine arts. Dr S.D. Jouhar said, at the time, when he formed the Fine Art Photographic Association:

"At the time photography is not generally recognised as anything more than a craft. In the United States photography has been openly accepted as fine art in certain official venues. It is shown in galleries and exhibitions as an art. There is no corresponding recognition in this country. The London Salon shows pictorial photography, but it is not generally understood as an art. Whether a work shows aesthetic qualities or not it is designated "illustrated photography" which is a very ambiguous term. The photographer himself must have confidence in his work and its dignity and aesthetic value, in order to force recognition as an art rather than a craft."

Until the late 1970s, several genres predominated, such as: nudes, portraits, natural landscapes (exemplified by Ansel Adams). The great star artists of the 1970s and 1980s, such as Sally Mann, Robert Mapplethorpe, Robert Farber and Cindy Sherman, still relied heavily on these artistic genres, although they viewed them with fresh eyes. Others investigated an instant aesthetic approach.
Frame and print size
Until the mid-1950s it was widely considered vulgar and pretentious to frame a photograph for a gallery exhibition. Prints were usually simply pasted onto wooden or plywood boards, or given a white border in the darkroom and then fixed in the corners on notice boards. Thus, the prints were displayed without any glass reflection to hide them. Steichen's famous Family of Man exhibition was unframed, the images glued to panels. Even in 1966, Bill Brandt's show at MoMA was unframed, with simple prints glued to plywood. From the mid-1950s until about 2000 most gallery exhibitions had prints behind glass. Since 2000 there has been a noticeable move towards once again showing contemporary gallery prints on boards and without glass. Also, throughout the 20th century, there was a noticeable increase in the size of prints.
Politics
Fine art photography is created above all as an expression of the artist's vision, but as a byproduct it has also been important in advancing certain causes. Ansel Adams' work at Yosemite and Yellowstone is one example. Adams is one of the most renowned fine art photographers of the 20th century, and was an avid promoter of conservation. Although his primary focus was photography as art, some of his work raised public awareness of the beauty of the Sierra Nevada and helped create political support for its protection. That photography has also had effects in the area of censorship law and free expression, due to his concern with the naked body.
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