On June 15, 1839, English mathematician and astronomer Sir John Herschel first used the term "photography" to refer to a technique or scientific tool due to the mechanics of the process.
But when did the struggle to recognize photography as art begin? Initially, photography existed in the upper echelons of society before
διάδοση της στη μέση και τη μικροαστική κοινωνική τάξη.
On July 28, 1831, a Parisian became famous for showing a portrait of himself alongside a portrait of King Louis-Philippe, saying "There is no difference between Philippe and me: he is a king-citizen and I am a citizen-king." The words and the display of the portraits by that
Parisian photographers aimed to prove that a king and a petty bourgeois could be immortalized by the same medium, photography, making it accessible not only to the upper classes, as in the case of painting, thus creating a different representation of the self and exuding a more democratic character. Photography became the medium of homogeneous presentation among different social classes.

At the same time, the democratic opposition to the government had a major influence. Its representatives were cultured and knowledgeable people, bourgeois who stood out because of their education and their liberal outlook on the world. They were considered the most receptive to any developments and, at the same time, they themselves were rapidly modernising. Because of this opposition, on June 15, 1839, a proposal was made to the National Assembly for the state to adopt photography and give it public status.
Later in 1900, Stephen Stieglitz was considered a pioneering photographer of that decade, promoting straight photography through his own gallery, "291," based in New York, and through the magazine Camera Work, arguing that photography can be art based on its own means and
not as an imitation of painting.

In 1902, the National Arts Club asked Stieglitz to organize an exhibition featuring the best photographers of contemporary American photography. In preparation for this upcoming exhibition, some of the more conservative members of the Club disagreed with him about the participants. Then, on February 17, 1902, two weeks before the exhibition, Stieglitz created the "Photo-Secession" group, wanting to prove that many photographers agreed with and supported his views.

The 1930s were an important decade for the development of photography, with a notable example being Walker Evans' 1938 exhibition entitled "American Photographs" held at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. There were other important photographers who contributed to the effort to recognize photography as an art form, such as Ansel Adams, who pioneered the aesthetics of landscape photography, Henri Cartier-Bresson, who focused on the search for the "decisive moment" and was also known as the father of modern photojournalism, and Paul Strand, with the introduction of "Straight Photography," (Straight photography), street photography, and the creation of his work in New York and Mexico, which depicted the truth of people and places in an intensely artistic and humanistic way. Other great artists such as Man Ray, with the creation of rayographs and his surrealistic fantasy images, Edward Weston, who founded the F/ 64 group and its significant influence, and finally photographer Dorothea Lange, who transformed documentary photography into a medium of expression with a profound and human impact, also supporting photography's ability to tell a story and have a strong emotional impact on the viewer. With the important struggle waged by the above and
Along with other well-known photographers, photography has now officially taken its place among the fine arts, with the ability to be understood anywhere in the world, making it known as a "universal language"!