Should Photography be Perceived as an Art Form?

The conversation in class this week revolved around Photography and the use of it as an art form. Photography is a rather new, expressive form of art and technology has made it readily available to people from all walks of life, not just artists with an eye for composition. Museums, for years, have hosted photographers who have held a distinct vision of the world around them. Their quandary has been about how to now come upon a means of distinguishing artist photographers from the multitude of mass-media photography. So, the argument was whether photography should be accepted as an art form or whether it should merely be left a means of communication outside of the art world. It is an art that is still evolving.
It is true that myriads of people, through the vast displays of rapidly growing technology in the world, have access to one form of camera or another and with the sharing and printing capabilities that the internet provides, through sites such as Flickr, Snapfish, Picasa or many, many other editing programs like Photoshop, the world of photography has become smaller.
Photography was once a novelty, something produced by professionals for an audience. Now, one only needs to point and click and the image is captured. But, there is still an art to capturing a great photo...composition...This week's class, an an art major before I became a teacher, was a brief review of how an image must be composed to convey its message effectively to an audience: balance, simplicity, the rule of thirds, etc. Any visual image must be set up in this way, websites, paintings, prints, and namely photographs. I remain an amateur photographer, though I know how to compose, edit and print these for my own purposes.
Here are the photos that I manipulated for this class
I will remain with the notion that photography is an art form, a rather new one, but all art forms are constantly evolving as time goes on, otherwise the artist would no longer be in existence. When restrictions are placed on an art form, it no longer is art. The field of communication should be allowed to be open and explored. We have not seen the last of this controversy.