Part 1: The role of portraits in the early days of photography and portraits today - 15%

What are the main differences and similarities between portraits in the early days of photography and portraits today?

Comparing to the earlys day, the role of portraits in modern days is unfathomable. Due to the technical and society problem. Photography in two different ages has so much differences. Firstly, early in the days photograph was luxury, because it was a new development of such technology. However, as time and technical progressed more photographers appeared, and the price was avaliable to the middle class. Secondly, the photograph and portraits in the early days were mainly done in a studio but in this present time with the technology advancement we have, photograph can be taken anywhere and any time. Lastly, it might be take a long time to take a photograph of a self portrait in the early days but now it'll only take a second or two. Although there are so many differences, they still have some similarities.  The mainly similaritie is photography is art, no matter in the early day or modern day, no matter how much differences between their price, technical, time...... They are still considered art. Photography still define as artist creates art of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects human of the senses. They are still used by catching the beautiful things or moments in order to people could have a good memory.

Who was the photographer and who was the subject of photographs in the past and today?

In the past days, it is so difficult to be a photography, because the cost to be a photography was so expensive. Plus this job was not that popular in the past days, so photographers were so limited. Now, anyone got interest in photography, they can just spend few money to buy a digital camera, then they can become a  hobby photographer, of course the professional photography need to spend more oney on it, but the price range is still cheaper than the range in the past day. Photography is no longer an expensive hobby, as it is affordable for just about anyone. The subjects of photos in the past were usually focused more on people, instead of physical objects, landscapes or buildings. Photos were taken of people who were generally rich, famous, and memorable. Today, you can take high quality photos of any object or person whatever you want by a digital camera.

What was the impact of technology on the portraits in the past and today?

In the past day, the technology on the portraits was much worse than today, for example, in the past days, we needed to developed the photo in the black room, but now, we can use machines or computer to do all of those, so it is so much easier. Of course there is still some of those black rooms exist in the world now, but it was only used by those people prefer to use traditional developing method, instead of modern technology. Again, comparing to the camera in the past day and today, the modern camera is so much better than the traditional camera, since it has more functions than the traditional one. Lastly, the modern photography skills on the portraits is advanced. Photo Enhancement is a good example, now you can use Photoshop to change the orginal photo whatever you want, such as  the contrast, brightness, sharpness, and quality of a picture. Further more, if oyu own professional photoshop skills, you could renew a old photo, or make a old lady photo to become a teen girl......and so on. As technology changes everyday, new ideas and methods will be introduced and we will have to adapt to the changes.

can art be mechanically reproduced?

When something is reproduced for so many times is that art? What's the importance of the mechanical reproducibility of the art? What was the impact on mechanical reproducibility on the society?

In my opinion, Artist creates art of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects human of the senses, that is the main purpose that why the art exists in the world, but if one artist spends a long time to create a product, and the other people just use the original product to make a alot of copies, is it still an art? I would tell you, yes, it is still an art, although it is reproduced for so many times, it would not be take away the sense of the art, on the contrary, it is a good way to propagandize the artist's art, because if there is only one original in the world, then how could it makes people get to know about its exist? On the other hand, if there are so many copies of it, then the artist's art could be spread all over the world in order to influence and affect human of the senses, so I strongly agree that art can be mechanically reproduced. Again, this point is the importance of the mechanical reproducibility of the art too. Mechanical reproducibility had a major impact on society, it is the copyright problem, such as film industry, some people use one original fim to make so many dvd copies so that they could obtain benefit but without pay out, so that is the negative impact on society.

Is photography art, or contribution to the art? Is it just a tool used by artists?

I believe that photography is art, and it is not just a tool used by artist. Normally Photography seems so easy to take any picutres by using a camara, however, getting catch a perfect image is not that easy like you think, and the final outcome of the photograph you take is solely based on the steps you take that lead you to that one photo. A photographer will use different positions, gestures, lighting and effects to capture certain motions in time. For example, if one uses a  luxury camara but without any photography skills, he/she could just random play with the camara for fun, so the most importance is photography art could appear photographies' senses through a success photo.

How and why Henry Pitch Robinson created Feading Away? What was the reason?

1858, Henry Pitch Robinson used his pioneering combination printing, joined multiple negatives to form a single image to create his success opus --- Fading away. It depicted the peaceful death of a young girl surrounded by her grieving family. Through this picture, you could see how are the true and the painful human experiences. At the same time,  it could tell you that how well is Henry Pitch Robinson's photography skills.

Photography has impacted the world of art and influenced some changes in the area of accessibility to art. If mechanical reproduction created revolution, what is happening now with the digitalization?

In the modern days, digitizing is becoming more common and everyone is depending on computers to edit images. Photo Enhancement is a good example, now you can use photoshop to change the orginal photo whatever you want, such as  the contrast, brightness, sharpness, and quality of a picture. Further more, if oyu own professional photoshop skills, you could renew a old photo, or make a old lady photo to become a teen girl...... and so on.