In the beginning all that could ever be
done to document reality was to memorize, then somewhere along the way a
cultural group invented cave paintings and rock paintings. These photographs was used to
record and document reality though them, the paintings themselves were never that
accurate. These paintings evolved and for some gave the idea to invent
ideographs but ended up leading to the invention of alphabets instead of
something that visualizes reality. Therefore, using alphabets to form words,
one can give the idea of how something looks and feels but cannot actually show
the object but just describe it. A while later after civilization was a little
better and innovation was at its peek, photography was invented. During the
early stages of photography, it did not have genres as people rather used it
just to document a specific moment in time, just as type was only used to be
read instead of being used as a design element. As photography grew it started
breaking in to different genres and was now able to be used for different
purposes instead of only documenting a specific moment in time.
Documentary Photography :
Documentary photography is about reality, it is about documenting the things that are happening in the world and in most cases those that most humans do not see in their everyday lives or that which they may see but do not know of how they occured. This is based on a moment, and what happens during that certain moment. One would realize that most of these photos will be in black and white instead of colour, reason being that some of them do not give an impression when in colour.
Art Photography:
Art photography is mostly based on beauty, and the aesthetic of a scene or a set, lighting can be altered and unrealistic objects may be shown in this type of photography. These are the type of images that should tell a story from about anyone's point of view, unlike documentary photography is only based on a certain story that connects to reality, art can be unreal and it depends on how an individual connects to it.
Science Photography:
This, like the documentary photography, is based on reality, but as the documentary photography focuses more on the occurance of the living, science rather expands and focuses on almost all that happens in the world that we do not have knowledge of and one individual cannot take photos of. Science is known as the study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural.
Paparazzi Photography:
Paparazzi photography is the type where photographers follow celebrities around take pictures of their lifestyles an the things that aren't morally right just in order to put stories in newspapers and magazines. One would see that there is no set for these types of photos and celebrities are rather in a distance instead of closer to the camera. The reason for these photos is exposure.
Fashion Photography:
Fashion Photography is the most coulourful of all, this is based on how people express themselves and how do the bright colours reflect on their lifestyle and personalities, most would be to advertise the trending clothing that is out there which everyone would consider as "swag" or the new "cool".
The effect of photography on public consciousness is that photography is used to raise public awareness and as there are different people in the world, not all will look at a photo the same as the other person as everyone connects what they are seeing to their lives, for example; art photography mostly portrays naked women, someone who is against sexism.
