Photography: The Rise Of Technology

Over the last two decades, our world has made massive technological advances. There has been a lot of progress in communication with the rise of smartphones and other electronics. In the scientific fields with the research that is being conducted all over the world from stem cell research and experiments to space exploration to 3D printing. And in the medical field with cancer therapies, better and more safe treatment options for many different diseases, and bionic prosthetics. The rise of technology has created incredible advancements and opportunities for many different fields and careers that help make our lives easier and more secure.

There is one more area in which technology has made a significant impact. That are is art. Art has always

In the 1820’s the original idea for photography was created by using light to record an image of something onto a light sensitive material. The next advance in photography was the camera obscura. This was basically a very dark room with a hole in one wall to let light in and project an image from the outside onto the wall opposite the hole. Later, a man named Joseph Niépce invented heliography which was the first real camera. After eight hours of exposure, the first photograph was taken by Niépce from his apartment window. Fast forward about one-hundred years and we have the first digital cameras. As technology advanced over the last fifteen years, cameras have become much more advanced. We can now take pictures in a matter of milliseconds. With the early cameras all you could do was take a picture with the lighting that you had and hope that it would focus. But now we can adjust hundreds of setting before we take a picture. We can change the aperture so we get the right amount of light, and zoom in to catch the smallest and most intricate details, or zoom out to capture the whole big picture. Our cameras can focus themselves so that images don’t turn out blurry but clear, sharp, and precise. Another important thing that the technology has helped with is accessibility. While the technology in and of itself is incredibly complicated and complex, the process of actually using that technology to take a photograph is just the opposite. It’s so

How is this? Well, think about art created hundreds of years ago. It is incredibly precious and worth a lot of money. Why is this? Because they are one of a kind! Art from times such as the Renaissance period and the Romantic era is so important because it is all original artwork, and normally only produced once. But now, artist have the ability to mass produce their artwork very quickly. Again, Take photography for example. The photographer can make as many prints of his image as he or she wants. I have personally seen the same picture by the same photographer in multiple peoples homes. A lot of people say that mass production limits creativity. I think this is true on some levels; however, I also think it is a false statement. First of all, I think social media is a big part of this. People see images all over facebook or instagram and try to recreate that photo. This is where I think creativity goes down the drain. Because when this happen, people get tunnel vision. Meaning, they only see one thing; they don’t look for different angles and perspectives and, in a sense, they lose their imagination because they are trying to do what somebody else has already done, when they should be making something one of a kind and completely their own. Dr. Seuss summed this idea up pretty well: “Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the things you can think up if only you try!” That