With the creation of the heliograph in 1827, photography as an artistic medium finally exists. There were a variety of artworks made using this new medium, along with the invention of constant new techniques, which reflects the constantly evolving technologies of the time, as well as the focus on automatic/ more convenient ways of creating/ acquiring arts. This also opens the door for the creation of photojournalism, with Timothy O’Sullivan’s A harvest of Death, allowing for the report of current, contemporary events.
We then moved on to the start of Impressionism, the artistic movement that places utmost importance on, rather than naturalism, capturing the feelings and emotions of a certain moment. Rather than structured forms and clear, three-dimensional divisions of objects, we saw a focus placed upon the “impression” of reality, of colors and abstracted shapes. In Manet’s works such as Luncheon on the Grass or Olympia, we saw an artistic reference to the arts of Titian, with the naked figures placed against the dark background. There is even less suggestion of a spatial reality with the lack of shadows and any background setting details. With Manet, we observed an added interest to a modernization of art, of directly engaging viewers into the narrative (the model was looking towards the audience). This goes to show that the point of Impressionism was always to arouse emotions and a sense of closeness to the subjects of depiction. For artists like Renoir or James Whistler, it was even less about presenting shapes that resemble life, and more about the discovery of an abstracted form of reality.