More Modern

Art made more sense in horse and buggy days because the technology of 1855 more closely resembled that of 1555 than 1955. The first tintypes appeared around 1855, making photography more modern.

The invention of photography halted realistic painting and allowed art to change and depart from how people had understood images for centuries. Gone was the need for masters and apprenticeships in painting, and if, for some reason, we had to paint a contemporary fresco, we’d probably stand around scratching our heads.

In my contemporary time, someone graffitied a random wall, and then someone else painted over it, resulting in flat rectangles almost identical in hue and tone. Then someone else shared a photograph of the wall, and as I sat with the image, I thought I was about as close to the end of painting as a person could be.

Time tricks us. For example, folks in the Old West had no idea they were living in something understood as such because for them, it was their present day, and ever since the invention of automobiles, we’ve been riding around in something new ever since.

If art is an old thing adapting to new eras, someone will make something if compelled, and another will chase a buck. What will happen to photogpgraphy? I don’t know; time will tell.