Fotofinish: Photography’s Triumph as an Autonomous Artform

In the 1990s, photography began to establish itself as a viable force in art and on the art market, but it was still far from achieving the status of an independent, autonomous artistic form. Today, it is among the most diverse original forms that exist in current artistic discourse. now, at the zenith of its ascent, the question arises as to how long photography will continue to be used as an independent process in art. Digitization has almost completely replaced analogue techniques. These fundamental technical changes also change how we approach and process photographic images today. In celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the DZ BAnK collection, this richly illustrated publication illuminates and reassesses the relationship between photography and the other artistic genres in five essaysnamely, in relation to painting, drawing, sculpture, and the moving image. It is time to finally look beyond the purely documentary nature of photography as art and refocus on the possibilities of this artistic medium. essays by Henning engelke, Ursula frohne, Christina Leber, Kathrin Schnegg, Steffen Siegel, and Wolfgang Ullrich.