So when DID photography start getting taken seriously as art?

[amolitor]

I keep stumbling across more and more references to this blessed event. Most recently, it seems that Rhine II was really the seminal piece that pushed photography over the edge, and caused it to be accepted as Art by the Art World, and worthy of being hung in Art Galleries.

And yet, I thought Stieglitz put all this to bed in early 20th century. Or maybe it was the Pictorialists. Or maybe it was Ansel Adams in the 1970s. Or something.

It seems like any time some twit wants to claim that so and so is the bestest photographer EVAR they claim that it was so and so's work that pushed photography over the edge.

Me, I kinda think it was Stieglitz. At any rate for the New York Art Scene. Anyone got anything, you know, FIRM, on this? I am pretty sure it ain't Rhine II in 1999.

 

[Tuffythepug]

I'd put the year of 1931 forward as a fairly important date in this discussion. In 1931 Edward Weston was given commission to exhibit his photography at the deYoung memorial museum in San Francisco. Until then there were few museums interested in exhibiting photography. Stieglitz, Edward Weston, Irving Penn,Ansel Adams and a few others organized their group "F/64" around this time with an eye towards promoting their particular brand of high-resolution black and white "Art" photography to the rest of the world.
If this wasn't the start of the "photography as art" movement it was certainly a benchmark in my view. Stieglitz certainly deserves his share of credit without a doubt.

 

[skieur]

Stieglitz 1907 "The Steerage".