Crop Corner

idiomatic expressions and rhyming patterns in his work. It is only logical to assume that personal style plays as crucial a role in art photography as it does in any other artistic genre where an artist's personality has overriding importance. In fact, not only is it logical, but it is also substantiated by facts. When looking at photographs, we cannot only name the artist who created them, but even take a peek into his soul. Certainly, the artist's personality influences his work in any type of art, but in photography this effect is especially evident, for several reasons.

During the nineteenth century, debate swirled around the nature of photography as an art. Many argued that the camera's ability to record the world dispassionately and objectively was a clear indication of photography's location within the realm of technology as opposed to the fine arts. Where was room for individual creativity, for art, if the camera was a tool for recording rather than interpreting the world? For some nineteenth century thinkers, photography, then, was a form of naturalistic documentation and was understood as a form of visual representation outside the bounds of Art with a capital A.