Introduction

Think about the fact, when photography had been discovered in 1839 and slowly matured over time, the painters of the late nineteenth century were forced to adopt a new style. This change resulted in a substantial shift in the forms — Realism to Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Expressionism, and Cubism, and so on. How different it is from paintings when photography, as a medium, is quite easily available and, everyone has access to it. Not much, I believe. In this article, The Photography of the 21st Century, I want to discuss how it is relevant in today’s photography context, comparing it with the evolution of different forms in paintings.

A photograph by Sudarshan Mondal from his New York Street photography archive. A could with a dog kissing in the street.
A photograph by Sudarshan Mondal.
The Perspective

We have millions of photographs, if not billions, are being produced every day. For instance, if just 1% of the world population, which is 7 billion as we speak, take one shot with their camera, mobile device, or by any other means, we will be producing 70 million pictures in a day. Sounds crazy, right? That is to say, does not warrant that it is the time to come up with new ideas of visual storytelling — a complete paradigm shift, and an approach for new standards?

In the 21st century, science and technology do not wonder us anymore. We are fortunate to witness many innovations. As humankind, we have gone through a series of advancements subsequently. The technology behind capturing an image is no more a costly affair, and accessibility is not an issue anymore.

Certainly, it’s not a privileged tool as it used to be in 10 years back. Even a low-end mobile phone can capture a decent image now. And we can also print it on paper or canvas. Mostly, we use a mobile phone camera to capture photos for social media. As a result, we have too many photographs are being produced every day. All are good in terms of look and appearance.

A photograph by Sudarshan Mondal from his New York Street photography archive. A couple passing by whereas a girl standing leaning on a wall behind.
A photograph by Sudarshan Mondal.
Simplicity and Complexity

Having said that, it outwardly seems photography is the easiest art medium to pursue. At the same time, it is very difficult to make images that can stand out from the crowd. That is to say, it’s hard to make images that can be remembered and treasured for a long. Advancement of technology has imposed some challenges to serious photographers. It forced them to think out of the box, and come out with new standards, redefine their approach. On the other side, its simplicity has continually encouraged all the photo lovers to pursue photography as a medium for art. So, many newcomers want to give a try. It was never before like that in film days. In fact, all this is good for photography as a fine art medium. It is equally good for the evolution of a new set of standards.

A Lesson from History

History repeats itself. In the seventeenth century, artists used camera obscura, which is the Latin word for “room dark”. It is a darkened enclosure or box with a small opening or lens on one wall through which light enters to form an inverted image on the opposite wall. It is believed that some artists used this method to project images onto the canvas during the Baroque period (1600-1750). However, due to the inability to create a truly permanent image, this technology could only be used as a tool to assist artists in drafting their artwork. In 1839, Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre used a silver iodide covered copper plate and mercury fumes to make a single fixed image. Since then, photography has truly become a fusion of science and creativity and matured over time.

A photograph by Sudarshan Mondal from his New York Street photography archive. A couple kissing while laying down in grass.
A photograph by Sudarshan Mondal.
Realism

With the development of photography, nineteenth-century painters were challenged to position themselves from the newly developed medium. It was the era of Realism (1850-1900) of modern art. At that time, the realist artists were interested in accurately depicting the human condition, with an element of social awareness. Realist artists had focused themselves to precisely represent the visual world. But then, a photographer could do this with a camera and flashbulb. Because of the camera, artists of the latter half of the nineteenth century began to experiment with optical realism and capturing of movement in a whole new way.

Impressionism

Impressionism (1870-1900), a new style was evolved in painting, a slight shift from Realism. The name of the style derives from the title of a Claude Monet work, Impression, Soleil levant (Impression, Sunrise). In Édouard Manet’s great painting, Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1881-1882), has a sense of the depth of field and blurriness, as they would be in a photograph, and is an indication of movement. In The Rehearsal on Stage (1874), Edgar Degas, an impressionist artist, painted ballet dancers featuring a dynamic form of the human body. It depicts two dancers in motion, limbs askew, blurry instructor’s coat, and dancer’s dresses. Soon after Post-Impressionism (1890-1910), again, there was a shift of style and form. Here in this era, we have great artists like Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cezanne, Paul Gauguin to name a few.

Claude Monet, Impression, Soleil levant (Impression, Sunrise), 1872, oil on canvas.
Claude MonetImpression, Soleil levant (Impression, Sunrise), 1872, oil on canvas
Image Courtesy: wikipedia.org

Édouard Manet, Bar at the Folies-Bergère  (1881-1882)
Édouard Manet, Bar at the Folies-Bergère  (1881-1882)
Image Courtesy: The Courtauld Institute of Art
Edgar Degas, The Rehearsal on Stage, 1874
Edgar Degas, The Rehearsal on Stage, 1874
Image Courtesy: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Expressionism

Vincent van Gogh is considered the greatest after Rembrandt van Rijn, and one of the greatest of the Post-Impressionists. The striking color, emphatic brushwork, and contoured forms of his work powerfully influenced the current of Expressionism in modern art. Vincent van Gogh produced emotional, visually arresting paintings over the course of a career that lasted only a decade. Rather than faithfully depicting his surroundings, he painted landscapes altered by his imagination, memories, and emotions evoked within him.

The Starry Night, oil on canvas by Vincent van Gogh, 1889; in the Museum of Modern Art, New York City.
Vincent van Gogh, The Starry Night
Image Courtesy: moma.org
Different Styles of Paintings

The radical shift in paintings happened with Fauvism (1900-1930) and Expressionism (1900-1940). Henri Matisse’s work is an example. And finally, a substantial shift happened with Cubism. It is characterized by fragmented images or images that had been broken up and viewed from multiple angles. It was a truly revolutionary development in modernist art in the early twentieth century. Pablo Picasso is credited with developing Cubism. His Guernica, painted in 1937, is a visual representation of the atrocities of war — an accurate depiction of a cruel, dramatic situation. It rendered through nearly abstract figures that stepped into symbolism.

Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907). Image used in blog post - Photography of the 21st Century.
Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907)
Image Courtesy: wikipedia.org
Pablo Picasso, Guernica, 1937, Oil on canvas
Pablo Picasso, Guernica, 1937, Oil on canvas
Image Courtesy: museoreinasofia.es
Influence of Photography on Paintings

Photography and its influence have definitely changed the style, form, and approach of paintings. It played a strong role in evolving new forms of paintings in the early nineteenth century. Similarly, easy accessibility of camera at mass level and excessive photographs produced every day, demand a change in photography. It should evolve in terms of innovative storytelling, forms, styles, and approaches.

In the 21st century, photography definitely needs a new roadmap, a whole fresh new medium. Now, photographs are not just being displayed on fine art paper, but many other digital forms like a webpage, PDF, slideshow presentation, and that makes it a different art medium altogether. The level of commitment needed to print and frame a photograph is much more than putting it on a webpage, or a blog, or simply on a social media site.

Personal Extension and its Importance

To give another perspective, let me take the example of a pen and paper. This is the cheapest medium available. Even though, every one of us is not a novelist, an essayist, or a columnist, or even a blogger. Because it requires a story to tell, or an idea to communicate, or a personal standpoint to share that should interest others. Similarly, today’s photography, at the peak of its technological avant-garde, in my point of view, is the communication of an idea and thought process involved with it. It could be to showcase a dreamland fantasy with a personal extension. That being said, colorful, good looking, and well-composed photographs are still not enough and adequate with the given perspective. In the 21st century, photography as a medium demands a new approach or a strategy to adopt.

Joel Meyerowitz once said –

“We think of photography as pictures. And it is. But I think of photography as ideas. And do the pictures sustain your ideas or are they just good pictures? I want to have an experience in the world that is a deepening experience, that makes me feel alive and awake and conscious.”

This echo with the current situation and absolutely relevant from the perspective where we stand now.

A photograph by Sudarshan Mondal from his New York Street photography archive. A black boy with a white girl having a good time.
A photograph by Sudarshan Mondal.
Some Questions

Questions often whirl in my mind — what should be the approach to photograph a subject. Is it the subject itself, or is it the way perceived by the photographer? It’s a weird concept. But when a personal extension is important, it is obvious to come up with this question. That would the quality which will make a photograph different from one another. If it’s important to fill up the frame with feelings, energy, frustration, wonder, or interaction of the subject with the photographer, we have to put a personal touch in the frame or series of the images, right?

Once again, I admire Joel’s viewpoint towards photography and his words. In his words —

“I think about photographs as being full, or empty. You picture something in a frame and it’s got lots of accounting going on in it – stones and buildings and trees and air – but that’s not what fills up a frame. You fill up the frame with feelings, energy, discovery, and risk, and leave room enough for someone else to get in there.”

This makes total sense to me. It indicates adding a third dimension in a two-dimensional photograph. In other words, it emphasizes having a personal viewpoint towards the subject, scene, situation, or whatever it is.

A photograph by Sudarshan Mondal from his New York Street photography archive. A couple kissing inside the Grand Central Terminal.
A photograph by Sudarshan Mondal.
The Truth about Photography

I realized from my own photography practice that it is not as trustworthy as it seems. It may not be the absolute fact — it could be an altered version of what is being displayed. Imagine how difficult it is to alter a fact when Photoshop already released its Creative Cloud suite.

Joan Fontcuberta, one of Spain’s most prominent and innovative artists, produced a series of landscape photographs in his “Landscapes Without Memory” work where the landscapes do not exist in the earth. In fact, those aren’t the photographs but computer-generated images created by software initially designed to produce 3D images based on cartographical data.

Having said that, it is the photographer who you can trust — what he perceived, and how he realized the event or the scene. You just cannot trust what you see in the print or in the digital version. The photographer, his works, and reputation matters. This again justifies the importance of personal extension in the craft of photography.

A photograph by Sudarshan Mondal from his New York Street photography archive. A couple seating in a riverside bench. Also, the hands of the man is symbolizing the boat and they are looking at the boats on the Hudson river.
A photograph by Sudarshan Mondal.

Today’s photography, at the peak of its technological avant-garde, in my point of view, is the communication of an idea and thought process involved with it.

A photograph by Sudarshan Mondal from his New York Street photography archive. A couple is having an intimate moment in a subway station. Bending legs are in sync with the railway tracks.
A photograph by Sudarshan Mondal.
Storytelling

I believe our interest in stories — truth or fiction, will never demise. It never did in the past. However, the storytelling matters. We have experienced in the movies that even a simple story of a boy becomes interesting if presented with artistry and skill. The richness of a story and creativity in storytelling makes it more valuable and admirable.

Similarly, in photography, we can make stories of whatever we can think of, that has to be unique. But it needs to be presented in a way that generates interest. And it should not be a clichéd one. I was going through some YouTube videos on writing, and they also talked about avoiding clichéd similes or phrases, suggested discovering something new and fresh. In photography, developing a story and presenting it in a fresh new way itself could be a possibility.

A photograph by Sudarshan Mondal from his New York Street photography archive. A couple kissing in seating on a bench in front. Also, a man looking at a women while both seating on a bench at the back.
A photograph by Sudarshan Mondal.

Most importantly, it should have a message, or an idea, or a statement, or even a fantasy. However, it has to be unique, non-clichéd. There has to be an innovative approach to storytelling. In short, it has to delineate with a fresh style that touches our minds. There are bright minds. I am sure they will come out with breathtaking ideas and continually surprise us.

A photograph by Sudarshan Mondal from his New York Street photography archive. Two boys are standing intimately.
A photograph by Sudarshan Mondal.
Story vs. Information

On the contrary, the story should not be mistaken with information. If I take a simple photo of my son standing in front of the Taj Mahal, it’s a piece of information that we visited the Taj Mahal. However, if I put it in a context, sequence it along with other photos, then the entire series will talk a story. We can use a photo for information or as a medium of storytelling.

Hypothetically, if I captured an alien with my mobile camera after the spaceship landed in a lonely sea beach and I was the only person present over there, would that be regarded as photography? Or the image that I captured would be seen as highly valuable information? I’m sure it’s a trophy. Finally, there is no solid line, no better way for demarcation.

It’s the evidence that I was there. It’s a piece of information. However, it carries valued information. To conclude — if we can put some standalone and fragmented information in a sequence, it can lead to a thesis, a or story, or even an abstract expression. It can be a valuable piece of art, a mind-blogging material with artistic values.

To conclude — if we can put some standalone and fragmented information in a sequence, it can lead to a thesis, a or story, or even an abstract expression. It can be a valuable piece of art, a mind-blogging material with artistic values.

A photograph by Sudarshan Mondal from his New York Street photography archive. Two boys kissing a girl while two boys are chatting in the back.
A photograph by Sudarshan Mondal.
Photo and Video

I think videography is the best medium for capturing information. In that case, photography needs a shift from video in terms of storytelling. Now we have 4k video technology available. Also, we have high-speed shutter cameras. We do not have any reason to believe that a good decisive moment is the actual credibility of the photographer. Technology has the power to capture decisive moments — only we need to choose the best from them later on. However, the advantages of technology have imposed some restrictions as well.

The Last Words

In conclusion, photography as a medium has been diversified — from fine art paper prints and books to various digital formats like slideshows, eBooks, PDFs, webpages, and social media platforms. Based on the media and format used, the level of commitment and involvement varies. If we want to make it to the same standard as a movie, or a novel, or a music album, we have to put a similar effort. Is that what are we doing? Do we have the realization where we stand right now on image-making pursuit? Instead of making individual leaves, I think, it is time to create a complete tree with leaves, branches, stems, and roots — a whole product using the advantages of tools and technologies.

A photograph by Sudarshan Mondal from his New York Street photography archive. A very intimate scene of a couple in street.
A photograph by Sudarshan Mondal.

To me, photography is a visual language for storytelling, making a statement, or passing a clear message, or sharing an idea; on the other hand, it is a medium for expression — like a piece of classical music with no lyrics, or as a scent of a flower, very hard to define in words.

Think about it. I would be extremely happy if you share your thoughts and leave a comment below. Please sign up for a new post. Thank you.

Another blog post of my personal photography though and practice.

https://www.sudarshanmondal.com/to-be-honest-with-photography/