Fine Art Photography

Fine Art Photography, also known simply as art photography, refers to the branch of photography dedicated to producing photos for purely aesthetic purposes. Fine art photography, housed in museums and galleries, is mainly concerned with presenting beautiful objects or ordinary objects in beautiful ways to convey intensity and emotion.

Much of art photography is produced in limited quantities and, at times, is used in advertisements or magazines.

However, because each person has an individual view of what constitutes beauty, deciphering what is or isn’t fine art photography is entirely subjective. Another challenge in the world of fine art photography is the fact that photography is a relatively new medium of art, as compared to painting or music.

While it can be aligned with fashion photography, fine art photography generally lies in opposition todocumentary photography that exists primarily for utilitarian purposes.

Many colleges and universities offer undergraduate and graduate programs in fine art photography. Some of the more noted fine art photographers include Albert Sands, Timothy O’Sullivan and Carleton Watkins.