Digital Photography

Many argue that recent developments in electronic technology such as computers and videotape have enabled artists to vary their forms of expression. For example, video art can now achieve images whose effect is produced by “digitalization”: breaking up the picture using computerized information processing. Such new technologies create new ways of seeing new equipment also allows for the preservation of previously unrecordable aspects of performances, thus enriching archives.

By contrast, others claim that technology subverts the artistic enterprise: that artistic efforts achieved with machines preempt human creativity, rather than being inspired by it. The originality of musical performance, for example, might suffer, as musicians would be deprived of the opportunity to spontaneously change pieces of music before live audiences. Some assisted our capacity for creative expression and can refine our notions of any given art form.

For example, the portable camera and the snapshot were developed at the same time as the rise of Impressionist painting in the nineteenth century. These photographic technologies encouraged a new appreciation for the chance view and unpredictable angle, thus preparing an audience for a new style of painting. In addition, Impressionist artists to vary their subject matter, thus giving rise to the abstract creations characteristic of modern art.