Usually referred to as art photography in short, fine art photography is an important part of professional picture styles that combine artistic creative vision with prints and special effects. Fine art photography usually makes the object of very classy collections printed in limited editions; the target audience of such albums are collectors and dealers, as the style of such photography is seldom used in advertising or the media. However, it is not uncommon to have fine art photography exhibitions organized, as a way of celebrating artistic variety and accomplishment. The history of fine art photography can be traced back to the Victorian age when a new artistic expression was found.
The fine art photography movement was exposed to several other artistic trends from the other domains: particularly painting and cinematography. Some of the styles presently seem out of fashion and little popular, and here we refer to the attempt to make photos as similar to paintings as possible. This trend marked the beginning of the 20th century and it is considered a step in the evolution of fine art photography. Little by little the gallery system was opened to exhibitions of various famous photographers particularly since artistic expression in pictures gained popularity.
Photojournalism and the snapshot aesthetic approach are tributary and somehow included in the fine art photography perspective, as pictures became one very touchy way of reflecting all sorts of social and human realities of our times. Art and documentary came to create a unique mixture in the evolution of present day photography, and the large number of prints and picture catalogs are just the way to prove it. Nowadays it is more than common that the regular canvases be replaced by framed and glassed pictures in a variety of wall-size prints; we could thus say that fine art photography has made its entrance in house design as well.
Staging and lighting are incredibly important for fine art photography, and very often the outcome depends on the type of camera used in the process. From medium-format and large-format cameras to digital cameras, fine art photography is definitely being more and more integrated in popular social artistic trends specific to the metropolis manifestation. Fine art photography remains however little exploited by the media, as it usually requires a well educated eye to perceive all the subtleties and the unique artistic details that remain unnoticed by the profane eye of common people.