A decade ago, when I thought of choosing photography as a profession  at that time too, I often came across this statement, that whether photography is an art or not? Frankly speaking, that time for me it was more about the passion to be the lensman and play with my passion. I was never involved so much in the depth of intellectuals. But today when people ask me about my take on it, then I look back and realise that yes, its a matter of discussion. But the very next moment I feel, is it really worth discussing something that is so universal and there can never be any doubt about it.

When intellectuals raise this question that whether photography is an art or not, I feel amazed. It’s like questioning the very identity of photography. Those who are into this debate need to understand what is an ‘Art’. And once they will understand the meaning of art, they will stop questioning it.

Before I move in detail, I feel to express what is art all about. If we go with the literal and universal meaning of it, ‘Art is an expression or application of human creative skill and imagination typically in a visual form’. Now this visual form includes array of medium. It can be a painting, sketch,craft or even a photograph.

Now the question arises, why this debate? As a professional photographer, I feel the only angle is the involvement of science in the entire process. But again, today science is an inevitable part of every aspect of life, so taking this as a consideration is not worth at all.

If I talk about the existence of photography as an art, the history speaks that it is the only thing that has struggled maximum for its very identity, but at the same time has been loved at large. In past 3 decades, even after so much of buzz, photography has traveled a journey that is worth applause.

I feel it is an integral part of art because of the dimensions it covers and surprisingly the subjects that comes under art, they all too comes under the wide spectrum of photography. It is just that we don’t understand the realm of areas it covers. To understand that I would like to throw some light on the democratising feature of photography that has been brought in by cameraphone. It has made photography easier and convenient. The most talked about change that cameraphone has introduced is the reach of photography. Now, it is no more an art that is restricted to a class or section. What surprises me and makes me proud is the kind of photographic revolution the cameraphones have brought.

Recently, while I was surfing on Instagram, I came across many working professionals who do phone-camera photography and to much surprise the way they have re-defined the concepts and beauty of world is commendable.

This recent accidental confrontation with new form of photography has made by mind clear on the argument of whether photography is an art or not. And I stand still with yes, it is definitely an art. If it would not have been, then all those expressions and imaginations would have not came into existence that has happened because of the technological advancement.

<
Moreover, I feel this is one platform that gives vision an birth to many other art forms. As above discussed, cameraphone photography has been a result of same which has created a new world of photography lovers who believe that this is one of the easiest and stylish way to call yourself an artist. When I asked one Instagram phone-camera lover with 8000 followers, he proudly said, “An artist is meant to create, re-create, imagine and paint it in the shades of love which is timeless. Similarly, what I do is on the same track. I create a new line of perspective through my lens and then paint it in natural light of nature and sometime complement it with artificial(flash) light.”

Well, this is one of the shortest yet impactful explanation I came across and trust me, now I don’t need to give it a second thought, whether photography is an art or not. Certainly it is and will be time immemorial.