Photography Essay -- Film, Photo Identification, Photjournalism

It is hard to find an aspect of the humanities that photography did not impact. Throughout all of history and the advancements made in technology photography has been used to do everything from prove a theory in science, to record a special event in a person’s life. In today’s modern world the impact of photography can be seen daily. Developments such as Photo identification, films, photojournalism, and thousands of other advances in life have all come from photography. Though all these aspects of photography are amazing in themselves, the true element of photography that made it such an impactful advancement in the humanities was its ability to capture a moment in time, and give the middle-class an understandable and relatively cheap new artistic medium. Though the discovery that an image could reflect on to another surface came around in the early fifth century (Hirsh, 2000), it wasn’t until around the 1800’s that inventors started really trying to create something that both scientists and the middle-class could use to capture an accurate image of their subjects (Kleiner & Maymiam, 2005). During this period of time only the rich upper-class were able to capture images of their familes and important aspects of their lives through a type of art called realism. This technique involved many hours of painting and siting in one area for a long time, and was very expensive. Scientists were also having troubles with their studies because they had no accurate ways to record key discoveries, because of this, inventors realized that still photography would be an invention people would be willing to invest in. If they found a way to create a device that would capture images like a painting not only would they sell to scientists, t hey wou... ...ce and effect on how we view history, how we live today, and how we will live in the future cannot be denied. Photography brought new challenges for artists, created new artists, and with it new forms of artwork. Photography also recorded great moments in history and scientific discoveries that, if they had not been captured may have been lost forever. Photography has also helped develop advertising, and spread news throughout the world; it has helped in development of new inventions such as film and digital artwork. Like many other great advancements photography not only became more advanced as time went on, it spawned many new inventions and advancements in technology that may not have been found before it. These advancements have impacted the world of humanities in countless ways and will most likely continue to do so for all of mankind’s continued existence.