Activity #9 (Redo)

The Effects that the Invention and Widespread use of the Camera had on Visual Arts

The camera is a wonderful thing! Its invention and widespread use have had substantial positive as well a negative effect on visual arts. The camera loosely defined - a lightproof box fitted with a lens though which the image of an object is recorded on a material sensitive to light - has enabled society to instantly capture the pure essence of a moment. Prior to the widespread use of the camera, an artist had to rely heavily on a sketch, a model, or memory.

Nonetheless there are negative effects of the widespread use of the camera on visual arts. For example, now many photographs are so shocking that people are actually questioning if they should “believe what they see” when the image is in contrast to beliefs. A camera can be used to isolate a focal point from an overall picture and implant an exact replica elsewhere. A viewer is then forced to question its authenticity against the commonly held view that images taken from a camera are true. The phrase “The camera doesn’t lie” is often used to validate those refuting questionable images, while disagreements regarding designs created by "traditional artists" are more acceptable due to the notion that "traditional artists" possess greater access to manipulate designs in favor of/in contrast to their underlying motivations. The use of the camera has changed visual arts because it forces that photographer to see the truth instantly, and if undesired – the image or environment can then be altered to suit such desires in a mere matter of seconds! Yet compositions of the more "traditional methods" of visual arts (i.e. paintings or sculptures) require much more to regroup – thus the "traditional artist" must alter/take into consideration the focal point or environment initially in order to complete the optimal composition or design desired – failure to do such could result in a waste of time, money, resources, and possibly worst of all reputation. The coined phrase “A picture is worth a thousand words” is another testament that validates how a photograph is viewed more objectively when compared to the more subjectively viewed painting. It is only recently that the output from cameras be questioned and that may be attributed to society’s modernization and familiarity with photo editing programs. We can capture a moment in time, observe it, edit it, mass produce it, and/or dispose of it without a second thought.

So the ability to capture an exact moment instantaneously – a task of which traditional forms of visual arts could not possibly satisfy - is flourishing in our current state of instant gratification while it is simultaneously desensitizing society to the point of ignorance. We can now choose to not validate images of government mismanagement, war victims, or impoverished nations – images that we deem controversial. The invention and widespread use of the camera has ultimately given us the choice to view visual arts as either a design or a decree.