POST #13 – READING – DISCUSSION– MARGOT LOVEJOY – THE CAMERA AS ARTIFICIAL EYE AND THE INFLUENCE OF TOOLS

1. The invention of photography, building on centuries of camera obscura use, introduced a radically new form of visual representation that both excited and threatened the art world. It caused a “crisis of authenticity” by enabling reproducibility and challenging the uniqueness traditionally associated with fine art. Artists like Talbot and Niépce saw it as a creative breakthrough, while critics like Delaroche feared it marked the end of painting.

2. Walter Benjamin argued that the reproducibility of art through photography diminished its “aura”—its authenticity tied to time and place. Mass reproduction shifted the focus from ritual and uniqueness to accessibility and political potential. As art became more widely distributed, it gained social meaning but lost its sacred, original context, blurring lines between art and commodity.

3. Rather than merely mimicking reality, photography led to new ways of seeing. Artists like Degas and Manet adopted photographic perspectives, breaking from linear Renaissance perspective and realism. Motion studies by Muybridge and Marey inspired Cubism and Futurism by revealing new temporal and spatial dimensions. Photography thus sparked the move toward abstraction and conceptual art.

4. Lovejoy emphasizes that different tools—from brushes and presses to cameras and computers—not only enable different methods of artmaking but also shape the very nature of what art becomes in a given era. For example, traditional oil painting requires physical labor and time, producing a unique, tactile object. By contrast, photography and electronic tools allow for rapid production, manipulation of time and space, and mass dissemination, fundamentally altering how art is created, experienced, and valued. She argues that each technological shift (mechanical, photographic, electronic) introduces new marks of the era, transforming both artistic intent and reception.

5.Lovejoy traces how photography and cinematography challenged the “aura” and uniqueness of traditional, handmade art objects. Walter Benjamin’s idea that cinema shattered visual tradition by allowing multiple perspectives, movement, and montage marks a profound shift. Film enables deeper perception and emotional manipulation through editing and sequencing, creating a collective experience that contrasts with solitary contemplation of a painting. This technological democratization of art forced artists to rethink their purpose, leading to abstraction, modernism, and eventually postmodernism—while also raising unresolved tensions between mass reproducibility and artistic authenticity.

Discussion question

How? When is Digital photography art?

I think Digital photography is art because it takes time to create the right image.  The lighting the time of day that you want to take the photo etc.  But it doesn't depend on what your camera is or your qualification.  Art is all around us and can be in anything you think of, and I think that's what truly makes art.