Crop Corner

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.