How Science and Technology Changed Art

Andrea Wolter-Abele looks at how machines and industrial society provoked new concepts of creativity.

The invention of photography by the French painter Louis Daguerre in 1837 radically changed the relationship of the human being to the image. Photography proved that it was possible to give an objective likeness of reality using mechanical means. Moreover the development of architectural, industrial and specialised photography substantially reduced the previous scope for artistic commissions involving the most accurate and detailed reproduction of objects possible. Henceforth creative art and photography were to be in constant tension or competition.

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