Articles

THE IMPACT OF PHOTOGRAPHY ON MODERN CULTURE

by

Angel Andrés Cárdenas R

I. Introduction

Photography and modern culture share the same history. Both developed practically at the same period, although photography is part of the modern culture and has contributed to building the concept of modern art.

Historical facts have been registered by photographers around the world. They have helped to communicate and expand the information. Since the days of Daguerreotype until digital photography, photography has had different purposes. In their initial times the principal aim was reporting the facts that affected human life, but afterwards, photography helped to expand the human mind and their creative, principally it was due new technologies and mass production.

Factually photography has had a big impact on everyday life, now people are using it not only to communicate but also to express their feelings, their ideas and their beliefs. To understand how photography has influenced our culture, we should know about its history and how participated in the historical facts from the XX century.

Since photography was invented, photography has had an important role in the recently human history. If we think carefully we can notice that photography has more impact than other media on daily live, the new generations cannot understand the world without photography. The Mass Media have used photography to depict their cultural values from each country, expressed in various visual languages. It does not matter if the people speak different languages, photography can be understood for everyone. (Osborne, 2004)

II. History and background.

To know the impact of photography in modern culture is important to remark its history. Semantically the word was born from Greek. Photography means “light” and “writing”. In 1802 was done the first experiment with photography, Thomas Wedgwere made photographic copies of paintings but he had problems to make permanent pictures. The first photography was made by Joseph Nicephore Niepce when he exposed his camera one day. This was the first picture.

In 1829 Louis Daguerre with the help of Niepce created the daguerreotype. He could make copies with permanent pictures. Afterwards Talbot invented a process that produced a negative from light-sensitive paper. During the XIX century a lot of people contributed with new developments, as for example Matthew Brady. He is considered the most famous American photographer from the XIX century. He was a student from Samuel F.B. Morse. Morse is well known as the father of the American photography and also he invented the telegraph.

By the end of the XIX century, photography had became common. Studios were opening and a lot of new techniques were developed. But not until that George Eastman opened Kodak photography achieved one of the most important cultural changes. Became part of the common families. The Kodak company offered cameras for non expert photographers with more than 100 exposures, they also offered to develop the film. By this way was that photography started to be a really important part of the modern culture.

At the beginner of XX century photography constructed its history since two views. The first one was photography for the people, and the second one was photography for the media. A new age had started. Afterwards technology wrote a new page in the photography history. The film color was developed and the digital technology changed photography forever. (Evans 2003, & Lawrie 2007)

III. Importance of photography.

Technology offered new viewpoints and consequently new ways of visualizing and documenting the world. When people think about the importance of photography they cannot understand it at the first sight, but we are surprised when we know how photography has participated in the developing of different kind of industries.

The relation among photography and industry brings mutual benefits. As for example space investigations. Photography brought the first images about moon, planets and stars. From those pictures the man could imagine and make theories about stellar space, from photography the man could plan the next voyage to the stars. Everyday thousands of persons use x-rays and scanners to know how their health is. Universities and schools use photography to teach about different subjects. Internet is flooded with billons of pictures, uploaded by the new enthusiastic photographers. (Johnson, 2004)

The revolution of the visual has one principal reason to be; people can learn and understand faster watching images than reading books or writing essays. Photography is revolutionizing our environment, our beliefs, our way to share with another people, our economy. Silently but rapidly photography is making a new world. (Evans, 1999)

IV. The Photographer Role.

First of all we should try to define what visual culture is and how this definition affects our lives. People have expressed their thoughts and values doing folk art. Since prehistoric times people have created art that shows how their daily lives were, as for example rock art. Since that age until today folk art has been the most important expression made by the people, and it was more significant during the XX century.

Visual culture is about everything we see, everything that influences our lives. Visual culture tries to discover the different kinds of people expressions.

Then photography started like a type of folk art helping to reproduce the ideas of XX century, the big boss (mass media) began to exist. There were two types of photographers. At the beginner the photographers only wanted to show what was happening in front of them. They just allowed their camera to take pictures without regard for subject or composition. They didn’t want to change the world; just they wanted to show it.

Afterwards another kind of photographer appeared. Their principal aim was change views and opinions. They did not want to be passive in the develop of history. They wanted to participate and try to change it. They understood that photography can turn on the people minds. They were able to influence the people and became them more criticism with their social environment. This characteristic charged a vital importance during the XX century due every social statement changed radically. Everything were in process, the world was changing.

We can say that photography has intrinsic properties that helped to construct the concept of modern culture. Probably the world without photography would be different. If the photographer works properly with those properties, they can influence people beliefs and moral views. Photography has the power to information, the power to entertainment and the power to teach. (Evans, 2003, & Wright, 1999)

V. The Intrinsic properties.

As I mentioned in the last point, the photography properties have constructed part of the modern culture and also have helped to extend the new ideas about various social topics. Now as we can prove, the information is on hand for everybody, it does not matter the social condition, the level education or even race and religion, people can find several information in the actual media. Photography was the first media that informed what was happening at the beginner of the XX century.

Only photography was able to show the barbarity of the wars of the early century. Also we can say that photography has more impact because everyone, no matter if the person was illiterate, could understand what was going on and join in one position. Photography contributed to open the people minds for the new century.

Now the second property is the power to entertainment. Two of the most important media were developed from photography. The television and cinema were born to become essential part of the XX century culture. Millions of people enjoy daily watching TV and cinema. Both were born from photography combined with another important technology advances.

Finally due photography is a universal language and can be understood by everyone who can see, photography has the power to teach. Images can show us in an easy way concept from various topics and subjects. From images people can learn not only the basis of the education but also really complex topics. Several Universities and schools are using images to teach. (Evans, 2003)

VI. New Horizons.

Technology is still playing an important role in photography developing. Not only has the camera suffered changes but also the lens, lights, printers and papers. Color photography is being used in all media. Digital cameras replaced film photography and also more and more people is using them for upload pictures to their own web sites. The profession is becoming important in different industries. (Robison, 2008)

Various fields of science and technology are requiring photography for their researches and investigations. Each day we can see pictures from the stellar space and also pictures from the human body. Photography has wide horizons.

VII. Conclusions

Photography has influenced the modern culture in different ways. Also it helped to expand the human minds and invited them to explore the world of the new century. Politics and moral views were affected by photographers who wanted to change the world, but another kind of photographers just wanted to show the historical facts. Both started to define the aims of photography.

Photography has been used with different porpoises. Not only has the industry been benefited but also different fields of the society, as for example education and mass media.

Photography can be considered as universal language due its capacity to be understanding by people who speak different idioms. This means that now the people are able to get more information about their environment. They can open their minds and state an opinion.

Photography with its intrinsic properties is actively participating in the social changes. Because of its three intrinsic properties, photography is still affecting our culture, now it is part of our modern culture.

VIII. Works cited.

Bates, D. (2004). Photography and Surrealism: Sexuality, Colonialism and Social

Dissent. The USA: I.B. Tauris and Company Limited.

Evans, J. (1999). Visual Culture. The USA: Sage Publications Ltd.

Evans, J. (2003). The Photography Handbook. The USA: Routledge.

Graham , G. (1997). Philosophy of the Arts: An Introduction to Aesthetics. The USA:

Routledge.

Johnson, B. (2004). Opportunities in Photography Careers. The USA: Mc Graw Hill.

Lowrie, C. (2007). Digital Field Guide. The USA: Wiley Publishing Inc.

Richardson, M. (2001). Experience of the Culture. The USA: Sage Publications.

Robison, C. (2008, September/October). Vision to Visuals. Digital Photo Pro, 158 p 28

Osborne, P. (2004). Traveling Light. UK: Manchester University Press.

Wright , T. (1999). The Photography Handbook. The USA: Routledge.