Invention of Photography. Photographical Medium as Generation and Means of Representation of Culture of Modernity

Article

Abstract

[In Russian]

In the article the author comes to the conclusion that photography is a typical example of «a great invention» that could be called «products of their time» providing a detailed account of mobility, a key concept of modernity, as well as characterizing some special features of positivism – the prevailing scientific- philosophical paradigm of the time. The second main observation of the article is that the appearance of photography was accompanied by a change in «high» art, which attempted to match the novelty that the former had introduced. On canvases of this time (especially impressionist) the fragment of reality made its appearance. Photography inspired art to become more realistic; it opened artists’ eyes to a world full of small things, many of which had been overlooked by most of the predecessors.