> A similar thing happened when photography was invented
Good analogy, I'd be curious how many people argue that photography being invented was a bad thing, and if at the time it was invented there were essays about how dangerous it was going to be
I'd speculate that when photography was invented, there was some gatekeeper group with a monopoly on it (to some extent true right up until digital photography became common) and so there was less vocal concern because portraiture (or whatever it's called) while evolving, still had some value capture for a small group, while recent image generation has been almost completely opened up, so there are no entrenched special interests that get to profit (and therefore more entrenched special interests whining)
> there was some gatekeeper group with a monopoly on it (to some extent true right up until digital photography became common)
Bollocks. There were consumer photography options widely available for decades before digital photography became available - everything from point and shoot cameras to decent SLRs, with a dozen kinds of film available, all at a price point pretty much everyone could afford.
Disposable cameras were even a thing for a couple of decades before modern digital photography took off...
The biggest democratisation of photography came with kodacks invention of the box brownie. The film stock it used was infact just repurposed movie film stock and much cheaper to produce and process than plate film. The camera itself was super cheap to make and operate. It heralded the birth of snapshot photography.
How things change. It was Kodak that invented the digital camera, but failed to capatalise on it as well as they could have.
No expert on photography history, but I know that it took quite a while for people to recognize the innate strengths of photography. Indeed, I have heard it said that the first true photographer did not arrive until around 50 years after the camera was invented.
The first applications of photography in art were clearly trying to emulate the paintings of the time.
Interesting fact. France bought the patents of Daguerre (Daguerreotype was an early name for photograph) and gave it to the world for free.
"Arrangements were made for Daguerre's rights to be acquired by the French Government in exchange for lifetime pensions for himself and Niépce's son Isidore; then, on 19 August 1839, the French Government presented the invention as a gift from France "free to the world"
Can you imagine if a country did this today just for the glory of it?
Good analogy, I'd be curious how many people argue that photography being invented was a bad thing, and if at the time it was invented there were essays about how dangerous it was going to be
I'd speculate that when photography was invented, there was some gatekeeper group with a monopoly on it (to some extent true right up until digital photography became common) and so there was less vocal concern because portraiture (or whatever it's called) while evolving, still had some value capture for a small group, while recent image generation has been almost completely opened up, so there are no entrenched special interests that get to profit (and therefore more entrenched special interests whining)