Styles & Movements

Photography in the 80s

Art institutions, contemporary art galleries, and collectors increasingly turned their attention to photography during the 80s and 90s. Photography has since become the most compelling medium for many critics of contemporary art. One explanation is that photography has ceased to be a relatively straightforward rendering of the world as it really is and has become—like other art forms—a strategy for commentary and creativity. The work of Cindy Sherman, who stages her photographs like mini-dramas, is largely credited for this change in thinking. Also, the technology of photography has developed to the point where photographs can be large in scale, offering all the lush colors and details of paintings.

This simplified explanation is admittedly problematic, largely because early photographers, such as Man Ray, the photopictorialists, and others, were highly subjective and went far beyond documentation. However, the fact remains that more and more contemporary artists use photography and yet do not call themselves photographers, and that the world of conventional fine art photography has become somewhat marginalized in the wake of such contemporary art stars as Sherman, Nan Goldin, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Sherrie Levine, all of whom came to prominence in the 80s.

In addition to meticulously staged photography, artists in the 80s also began to manipulate the photographic form in physical ways, with markings, paintings, tearing, and the addition of other elements and media. Some examples include Doug and Mike Starn and Ellen Carey.

Since the 80s, photography of all descriptions—either "classic" documentary photography or "conceptual" art photography—has risen to great prominence in the museum world and art market.