the earliest controversies about the relationship
between photography and art centered on whether photo-
graphy's fidelity to appearances and dependence on a
machine allowed it to be a fine art as distinct from
（5） merely a practical art. throughout the nineteenth century，
the defense of photography was identical with the strug-
gle to establish it as a fine art. against the charge that
photography was a soulless， mechanical copying of real-
ity， photographers asserted that it was instead a privileged
（10）way of seeing， a revolt against commonplace vision， and
no less worthy an art than painting.
ironically， now that photography is securely established
as a fine art， many photographers find it pretentious or
irrelevant to label it as such. serious photographers vari-
（15）ously claim to be finding， recording， impartially observ-
ing， witnessing events， exploring themselves-anything
but making works of art. in the nineteenth century，
photography's association with the real world placed it
in an ambivalent relation to art； late in the twentieth
（20）century， an ambivalent relation exists because of the
modernist heritage in art. that important photographers
are no longer willing to debate whether photography is
or is not a fine art， except to proclaim that their own
work is not involved with art， shows the extent to which
（25）they simply take for granted the concept of art imposed
by the triumph of modernism： the better the art， the
more subversive it is of the traditional aims of art.
photographers' disclaimers of any interest in making
art tell us more about the harried status of the contempo-
（30）rary notion of art than about whether photography is or
is not art. for example， those photographers who suppose
that， by taking pictures， they are getting away from the
pretensions of art as exemplified by painting remind us
of those abstract expressionist painters who imagined
（35）they were getting away from the intellectual austerity of
classical modernist painting by concentrating on the
physical act of painting. much of photography's prestige
today derives from the convergence of its aims with those
of recent art， particularly with the dismissal of abstract
（40）art implicit in the phenomenon of pop painting during
the 1960's. appreciating photographs is a relief to sensi-
bilities tired of the mental exertions demanded by
abstract art. classical modernist painting-that is，
abstract art as developed in different ways by picasso，
（45）kandinsky， and matisse-presupposes highly developed
skills of looking and a familiarity with other paintings
and the history of art. photography， like pop painting，
reassures viewers that art is not hard； photography seems
to be more about its subjects than about art.
（50） photography， however， has developed all the anxieties
and self-consciousness of a classic modernist art. many
professionals privately have begun to worry that the pro-
motion of photography as an activity subversive of the
traditional pretensions of art has gone so far that the
（55）public will forget that photography is a distinctive and
exalted activity-in short， an art.