The same image but modified with a fisheye lens-style technique into a circle
Commercial
Example of a studio-made food photograph.
Commercial photography is probably best defined as any photography for which the photographer is paid for images rather than works of art.
In this light, money could be paid for the subject of the photograph or
the photograph itself. Wholesale, retail, and professional uses of
photography would fall under this definition. The commercial
photographic world could include:
- Advertising photography: photographs made to illustrate and usually sell a service or product. These images, such as packshots, are generally done with an advertising agency, design firm or with an in-house corporate design team.
- Fashion and glamour photography usually incorporates models and is a form of advertising photography. Fashion photography, like the work featured in Harper's Bazaar,
emphasizes clothes and other products; glamour emphasizes the model and
body form. Glamour photography is popular in advertising and men's magazines. Models in glamour photography sometimes work nude.
- Concert Photography focuses
on capturing candid images of both the artist or band as well as the
atmosphere (including the crowd). Many of these photographers work
freelance and are contracted through an artist or their management to
cover a specific show. Concert photographs are often used to promote the artist or band in addition to the venue.
- Crime scene photography consists of photographing scenes of crime such as robberies and murders. A black and white camera or an infrared camera may be used to capture specific details.
- Still life photography usually
depicts inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which
may be either natural or man-made. Still life is a broader category for
food and some natural photography and can be used for advertising
purposes.
- Food photography can
be used for editorial, packaging or advertising use. Food photography
is similar to still life photography but requires some special skills.
- Editorial
photography illustrates a story or idea within the context of a
magazine. These are usually assigned by the magazine and encompass
fashion and glamour photography features.
- Photojournalism can
be considered a subset of editorial photography. Photographs made in
this context are accepted as a documentation of a news story.
- Portrait and wedding photography: photographs made and sold directly to the end user of the images.
- Landscape photography depicts locations.
- Wildlife photography demonstrates the life of animals.
- Paparazzi is
a form of photojournalism in which the photographer captures candid
images of athletes, celebrities, politicians, and other prominent
people.
- Pet photography involves
several aspects that are similar to traditional studio portraits. It
can also be done in natural lighting, outside of a studio, such as in a
client's home.
The market for photographic services demonstrates the aphorism "A picture is worth a thousand words", which has an interesting basis in the history of photography. Magazines and newspapers, companies putting up Web sites, advertising agencies and other groups pay for photography.
Many
people take photographs for commercial purposes. Organizations with a
budget and a need for photography have several options: they can employ
a photographer directly, organize a public competition, or obtain
rights to stock photographs. Photo stock can be procured through traditional stock giants, such as Getty Images or Corbis; smaller microstock agencies, such as Fotolia; or web marketplaces, such as Cutcaster.
Art
During the 20th century, both fine art photography and documentary photographybecame accepted by the English-speaking art world and the gallery system. In the United States, a handful of photographers, including Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, John Szarkowski, F. Holland Day, and Edward Weston,
spent their lives advocating for photography as a fine art. At first,
fine art photographers tried to imitate painting styles. This movement
is called Pictorialism, often using soft focus for a dreamy, 'romantic' look. In reaction to that, Weston, Ansel Adams, and others formed the Group f/64 to advocate 'straight photography', the photograph as a (sharply focused) thing in itself and not an imitation of something else.
The aesthetics of
photography is a matter that continues to be discussed regularly,
especially in artistic circles. Many artists argued that photography
was the mechanical reproduction of an image. If photography is
authentically art, then photography in the context of art would need
redefinition, such as determining what component of a photograph makes
it beautiful to the viewer. The controversy began with the earliest images "written with light"; Nicéphore Niépce, Louis Daguerre,
and others among the very earliest photographers were met with acclaim,
but some questioned if their work met the definitions and purposes of
art.
Clive Bell in his classic essay Art states that only "significant form" can distinguish art from what is not art.
There
must be some one quality without which a work of art cannot exist;
possessing which, in the least degree, no work is altogether worthless.
What is this quality? What quality is shared by all objects that
provoke our aesthetic emotions? What quality is common to Sta. Sophia
and the windows at Chartres, Mexican sculpture, a Persian bowl, Chinese
carpets, Giotto's frescoes at Padua, and the masterpieces of Poussin,
Piero della Francesca, and Cezanne? Only one answer seems
possible — significant form. In each, lines and colors combined in
a particular way, certain forms and relations of forms, stir our
aesthetic emotions.[41]
On 14 February 2004, Sotheby's London sold the 2001 photograph 99 Cent II Diptychon for an unprecedented $3,346,456 to an anonymous bidder, making it the most expensive at the time.
Conceptual photography turns
a concept or idea into a photograph. Even though what is depicted in
the photographs are real objects, the subject is strictly abstract.