In photography school we defined photography as just the act of capturing a scene in a photograph. We tend to define the purpose of that capture through the var

In photography school we defined photography as just the act of capturing a scene in a photograph. We tend to define the purpose of that capture through the various sub-genres of photography. For instance, I'm a "fine art photographer" in that I take photos which I set up in a studio that are meant to have artistic merit. They happen to have no bearing on reality (but that's not a prerequisite for them being fine art.) There are many examples of "realistic" fine art photos (some of Lauren Greenfield's work for instance[1]). Photojournalism is generally defined to be an attempt to tell a story through a photograph. Whether "reality" is reflected or not can be a component of any type of photography, I don't think it's a category unto itself. Although welcome to having a discussion about art, where no one is right. [1] http://www.laurengreenfield.com/ http://www.laurengreenfield.com/