ACTIVITY 6: CONTEMPORARY ART FORMS

Create a brief report or research on a contemporary art form. It may be an art form not
mentioned in this lesson. The report should include the art form’s characteristics, history, proponent
artist/s and a picture of an example artwork of the form.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either
electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as
photographic film
The characteristics of photography is reflected within the shots or photos that are taken, and requires
these photography elements; Compelling Compositions, Display of Emotions, Simple Storytelling, Elliptical
Storytelling, Iconic Moments, Unique Moments, Juxtaposed/Contrasting Concepts, Unique Lighting and
Colors, Attention to Details and Unique Perspectives.
Years ago, the field of photography had to fight a tough and controversial battle in terms of being
considered as art form. It wasn’t so easy at the beginning, when photography was first invented, and
photographers had a hard time being considered as artists. The multiple applications it derived into and
the diverse areas it is used in made it a skeptical art medium. Its diverse usage, from scientific
photography to commercial photography, added to the popularity and distribution of digital cameras,
make it hard to be considered a medium of its own in the art world. Nowadays, photography is
considered an art form as valid as any other, and there are multiple museums and galleries exhibiting
photographic work.
As many other human inventions, photography is not brainchild of just one person. There were people
who gave initial ideas, people who took it further but missed and people who made something out of it.
These proponent artists are; Henry Fox Talbot who started photography with earlier methods which used
paper as material and made negatives that can be copied many times, Thomas Wedgwood who
experimented with chemicals and planted a seed of photography as we know it today, Nicephore Niepce
who successfully experimented photography and set foundations for future experiments and
photographers, and lastly, Louis Daguerre who pushed photography in a right direction by shortening the
time of exposure from few hours to few seconds.