Contemporary Photography

What exactly is "contemporary photography"?

"Contemporary photography" is a general category for recent fine art photography from the 1970s onward.

There is a little confusion about the term "contemporary photography", because there is no fixed period for it. Some art historicians and other art experts define contemporary photography starting from the end of world war 2 (post war art) some from the 1970s. (Others claim even 1930s photographs as contemporary but this is not very common). Most players in the art market define contemporary photography as photographs from the 1970s onward.

Literally the expression "contemporary photography" means photography from the present time, or better from the same period of time we are having now. And literally "contemporary photography" means all kind of photography, but usually the term is used for fine art photography. It had been a very long way for photography to be seen as an art. In Europe and many other countries as recently as 1960, photography was not really recognised as a Fine Art as a craft.

Learn more about contemporary photography and contemporary photographers on Contemporary-Photography.net

Excerpt from a text on Contemporary-Photography.net

Image: Stephan Widera