The specifics of mediums were very important during the Modernist period. For artists during this time, it was essential for them to be able to work in their medium superbly and flawlessly and not so much encouraged to incorporate other media in their realm. A viewer in a gallery looks at the traditional Modernist photographs created by artists like Ansel Adams and Minor White and sees a well done photograph that is aesthetically pleasing. Today, as we have progressed and moved into the post Modernist period artists, not only photographers, have opened up their media barriers and are well adept in creating multimedia works and are knowledgeable in not only one medium.
So why are the Modernist artists placed at this level of elitism above the very well read and practiced post Modernist artists that are still written about as second rate today. In a section of "The Crisis of the Real" by Andy Grundburg, postmodernism is described as one of the key factors that helped the art world open its doors to the contemporary art world for photography (14)." During the Modernist period photography in particular was considered a tool that one needed for record making; and that is what its main use was. The very simplified tool is now an art form that has changed the contemporary art world.
A great part of post Modernism that I feel sets artists of this time on a higher level is the great amounts of individuality that has come about. Postmodernism has helped the artist not be defined by the medium they are working in and also has lifted the stiff traditional air that resides around Modernism. Postmodernism has breathed freedom in the direction of art today and I feel that the talent in artists that are currently working and producing are on a level that is not comparable to Modernist work.
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