This clip from the movie Funny Face is a fun look at how portrait and fashion photography were influenced to be more of an art form. Funny Face is adapted from a broadway musical. The Main character Dick Avery is loosely based in Richard Avedon, the famous portrait photographer who worked in fashion and was a big part of influencing this change in thinking
Paramount Pictures Corporation. (1957). Funny Face. Retrieved November 9, 2023, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLU3Mn90e_4.
To learn more about Richard Avedon there is also this great article from Smithsonian Magazine, and a biography written about Avedon, "What Becomes a Legend Most: The Biography of Richard Avedon"
Ault, A. (2022, December 21). Richard Avedon Pushed the Boundaries of Portrait Photography. smithsonianmag.com. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/richard-avedon-pushed-the-boundaries-of-portrait-photography-180981330/
Gefter, P. (2023). What Becomes a Legend Most: A Biography of Richard Avedon. Harper Perennial.
The Pictorialists were around from the 1890's until the 1930's. This was a movement that came with commercially available cameras. They believed Photography should be included in the fine arts and to do this they focused on the more painterly qualities of photography. This Movement was championed by Alfred Stieglitz in his publication Camera Work. A few different views on how it is acceptable to achieve this came up, Stieglitz prefered Straight Photography, no manipulation after shooting the picture on the film negative.
The Art Institute of Chicago. (2016). Pictorialism. The Alfred Stieglitz Collection. https://archive.artic.edu/stieglitz/pictorialism/
This is an excerpt from an article Ansel Adams wrote for Britannica's entry on "Photographic Art" for their "10 Eventful Years: A Record of Events of the Years Preceding, Including and Following World War II, 1937 Through 1946". It is not the whole entry but it looks at the shift in thinking about photography as art for more than just artists, and marks a change in the medium to something more professional, more of an accepted art form. Alfred Stieglitz dies (1946), and 'Documentarists" are born (1937–46), as is the MoMA's department for photography (in 1940).
Encyclopædia Britannica. (n.d.). Ansel Adams on photographic art. Britannica Academic. from https://academic-eb com.libproxy.albany.edu/levels/collegiate/article/Ansel-Adams-on-photographic-art/635558
A smaller section of the Britannica's history of photography focusing on the history of photography as art. Here they showcase the opposing viewpoints there were about how to make photography into an accepted fine arts medium.
Encyclopædia Britannica. (n.d.). Photography as art. Britannica. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/technology/photography/Photography-as-art
There is also an article that goes with/came out of this podcast episode. In the video they go into more depth, but both the article and the podcast episode go through the movements of photography throughout the history. They touch on abstract, surreal, and documentary photography; as well as fashion, modern, and street photography.
Walton, S. (2023). The history of photography movements. iphotography. https://www.iphotography.com/blog/the-history-of-photography-movements/
B&H presenter condenses what is normally a six week class into a two hour presentation where she goes through what she points out as the six most relevant movements in photography. some of these movements are photography specific, meaning they will only be a part of the history of photography, and some of the movements are not exclusive to photography and show up across all of the history of art. The six movements discussed here are: Pictorialism/Photo Secession; Straight Photography; Russian Constructivism/Surrealism/Dada; California Modernists; Abstract; New Social Landscape/Postmodernism.
B&H Photo Video. (2013). Art Movements Through Photography. YouTube. Retrieved December 3, 2023, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-Bx5krtLZY.
Though this is not an authoritative list, it is a good comprehensive look at some of the most influential photographers. There is some overlap with influential inventors of photographic processes.
Hunt, N., & Walton, S. (2022). The World’s Most Influential Photographers. YouTube. iPhotography. Retrieved December 3, 2023, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2EfyEWX9XA&list=PLrPjMK8pGlJIfcKkrbyVt-8AmMJ8YiLTd&index=11.