To start with, I’d like to tell you about tornado in Kansas, which took 46 lives, thousands of people lost their homes. Some volunteers to support victims had gathered photos, which were scattered over kilometers from the place of tragedy. Sufferers came to the church to find photos of their beloved people. They felt relief, sorrow, happiness, when found a paper which could remain appearance of their entire life. So, maybe, photos are more than just pictures? My answer is “YES”!
First of all, photo is emotion. When you look at picture, you feel. Even is you see the most uninteresting image, you feel negligence, which is also emotion. Second, every human want to leave something after death. Even such a tiny thing as photo can help in this purpose greatly. Also it’s very important to look at yourself from the side to make right conclusions. We can continue this list forever, because photography is one of the greatest human inventions. But let’s talk about evolution of this incredible art.
In 1900 a small box camera appeared. It’s price was just 1$, pretty accessible. So, suddenly everybody could take pictures. In 1908 one company offered to post photos on a postcard. It became really popular, because people just liked to show their lives to others. Maybe, to be proud of themselves, maybe, to make happy surrounding… Everybody had own reasons. Also images were used to show activity of relatives and it was a real sacrilege to throw such a photo out.
In XIX century newspapers could give just readable information, but in 1880 a process called “halftone” was invented and press began to give visible information too. Due to this method really big popularity ”National Geographic Magazine” reached. There were shown different exotic (for that times) countries, which the most part of people couldn’t attend. So, it was a big possibility to wide your horizon, to think about your daily life. Another great contribution to American photography Edward Curtis made. He pictured Indians. This man left a great legacy as for historians, as for art, as for people in general.
In 1902 Alfred Stiegliz began to use photography as art. People argued:”Where is art? Everything you do is just pressing button.” And everybody tried to make photography a handmade process like other arts.
In 1906 it became possible to print photos in books. And Louis Heim used his camera to picture children’s labor. These were terrible times, because such a labor was not illegal. Intellectual potential of nation decreased, because children were not able to get an education and only thing they could do was work. So, Heim cooperated with “Children’s community” tried to struggle with situation- he posted hundreds of images with deprived children.
In 1919 the oldest pictured “Life” newspaper appeared. There was not just text, but images from the place of events too. And people became more addicted to visible information, because it was like a real evidence. Also it was very important to photo bad news in order to close humanity to reality.
Photography made a big step in astronomy too. Because before it appeared, people had to draw what they saw through telescope and no one saw space exactly. So, from the time we could see space, we had a really durable conception of space out of our planet.
To conclude, I’d like to say that in even such a small period of time, photography has influenced humanity greatly. And I think that this art appeared when people needed it and will stay forever.
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