Modern art has no precise definition: it remains an elastic term that can have a variety of meanings. Nevertheless, it is customary to say that the term refers to works created around the period 1870-1970. In this era, photography, in addition to establishing itself as an art form, preserving and developing its own aesthetic value and identity, has also turned into a full-fledged material for other art forms. At a time when there is an intense synthesis of the arts, photography has shown its plasticity as a material that can be used in any combination with other modes of figurative expression. An important feature of this period is the absence of the subject who creates the work. The work of the camera comes to the fore, hence, the requirements and approaches to the evaluation of the image change; the focus of attention shifts to the technical execution rather than to the spiritual component. The notion of photography as a necessary and expected component of the contemporary creative process in the new millennium has been strongly reinforced. The unique facets of visual image creation not only influence the optical techniques and modes of dissemination of photography as contemporary art (Duganne et al., 2020). They also make viewers pickier about which images belong to the realm of art in light of this new, more expanded presence of photography in modern life.
In this context, it becomes clear that the contemporary art of photography is conditioned by the individuality and energy of its creators. Their works, retain the brilliant dialogic nature that makes photography an art within the changing and ever-expanding sphere of this activity. Current attitudes to the postmodern image coincide in many respects with Kant’s aesthetics, turned toward general philosophical concerns (Duganne et al., 2020). The boundaries of art are shaky, but still, they can be drawn with sufficient certainty; postmodernism, from this point of view, is not nature, science, or craft. Nevertheless, an incomparably more significant influence on the development of the postmodern had the ideas of Marx (Duganne et al., 2020). Marxism speaks of capitalism as the main determinant of social consumption, which cannot but affect art. The latter, under the influence of market rationalism, becomes postmodern in the classical sense. This is because with all its attendant trappings, the economy’s market structure turned photographers into artisan entrepreneurs, adjusting their activities to the laws of supply and demand.
Reference
Duganne, E., Diack, H., & Weissman, T. (2020). Global photography: A critical history. Routledge.
Kant, I., & Bernard, J. H. (2021). Critique of judgement. Independently published.