The argument over whether photography should be considered an art form seems laughable to us today. Yet, beginning in the 1880s and lasting into the 20th century, members of amateur photographic clubs and societies the world over deemed the topic of artistic photography worthy of a decades-long shouting match. With several notable exceptions, photographic imagery in the 19th century was utilitarian in purpose—documenting people and places—and usually for a fee. Aesthetic stagnation and conformity was often the result. Market forces toward the end of the century changed this. A new syntax emerged in the language of photography with the introduction of the dry plate, advanced cameras and lenses, . . .

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