When photography was invented, most of the art world held it to be a mechanical process or a craft useful for documenting the world, but certainly not art.  It took little training to be able to produce a photograph, but certainly not the thousands of hours required to learn to paint well or play the piano beautifully.  Even early photographers looked at their photos as chronicles of life but certainly not anything that they created as art.  As photography and photographers began to realize what is possible with the medium, more and more critics began to think of photography as art, despite the fact that anyone with a few hours of instruction could make a photograph.  Belatedly but thankfully, critics decided that the beauty of the medium should [...]