The nineteenth century saw the invention of a beautiful device known as the camera obscura. The
dictionary explains the meaning: a darkened chamber or small building in which images of outside
objects are projected onto a flat surface by a convex lens in an aperture, sometimes shortened to
camera. It is one of the most complex and breathtaking scientific inventions taken place in modern
history. The need to communicate through visuals has been an age-old phenomenon but the medium
has always been different. Earlier it started with a cave or wall painting, then through sculptures and
the more modern phenomenon that we understand as camera or photography.
Why was the camera invented? To record or capture certain moments which was not possible
with the naked eye or may be to view the world from a totally unbiased or neutral perspective. An
experiment had been conducted to test the potential of this mechanical device and has shaped the way
we view reality. The test was to check whether the feet of the four galloping horses are off the ground
at any particular moment. This experiment was carried out by Edward Muybridge in early 1870s but
the technology was not advanced enough to record such minute details. In 1878, he tried again and it
was proved that the four galloping horses did have their feet off the ground at a moment in time and
realized the potential of this technological device. This incident has altered the way we view reality
around us.
It became a channel to document stories of war, destruction and to express people’s inner state
of mind and feelings. It has served as the visual archive of the multiple wars that had broken out in
different parts of the world in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century and the camera also
acted as a vehicle of rebellion for a few handful to portray the ‘true face of mankind’.
Over the years photographers have emerged, used the device in an unprecedented manner,
understood its intricate functions, and expressed their ‘perspective’ in an aesthetic sense, truly their
own. While the twentieth century saw the blooming of Photography as an Art, where do we stand now
in the contemporary scenario? With the digital explosion and cameras being offered at an affordable
price, it is no longer a medium controlled by the privileged few, unlike before. It has surpassed the
boundaries of the elite and the common man and made it a populist medium. But the question
arises has this easy availability of technological devices made the visual medium redundant? Has
photography lost its fervor and excitement that had taken the world by storm due to its strength to stir
people’s feelings and emotions? With the omnipresence of social media hijacking our lives, the visual
culture seems to redefine itself.
Facts state that after the launch of Facebook in 2004, an estimated number of 100 billion
photographs were being shared via social network by 2011, and about 300 million by 2012. The need
to share personal and professional accomplishments via social network through images is prolific and
these images seem to lose its significance. Due to the incessant influx of images via social media, does
the role and meaning of photography change? Are we moving towards a new aesthetic sensibility to
understand the world around us?
We have inquired into the questions concerning Photography as a dwindling art, or does it still
have some hope to resurface as an art form of the 21st century? Does it acquire a whole new meaning
in today’s time? Photography can still be used by the marginalized or the outcasts or subaltern to image
their condition, to be recognized and assimilated as ‘humans’, given the fact that throughout history,
they have been subjugated.
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Siddhartha Tagore