Category talk:Pioneers of photography

Biography: Arts and Entertainment Category‑class

	Biography portal This category is within the scope of WikiProject Biography, a collaborative effort to create, develop and organize Wikipedia's articles about people. All interested editors are invited to join the project and contribute to the discussion. For instructions on how to use this banner, please refer to the documentation.BiographyWikipedia:WikiProject BiographyTemplate:WikiProject Biographybiography articles
Category	This category does not require a rating on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
	This category is supported by the arts and entertainment work group.

Photography: History Category‑class

	This category is within the scope of WikiProject Photography, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of photography on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.PhotographyWikipedia:WikiProject PhotographyTemplate:WikiProject PhotographyPhotography articles
Category	This category does not require a rating on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
	This category is supported by WikiProject History of photography.

This category was nominated for deletion on 10 January 2008. The result of the discussion was no consensus.

Untitled[edit]

This category needs to have some sort of definition about what a "pioneer" is. There are a few 20th century photographers in the list, and they don't seem to fit. I'd propose that the definition be "photographers who completed most of their work by 1880" but that's just one possibility. Thoughts? Lexaxis7 (talk) 23:28, 5 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Any comments or thoughts on this proposal? Otherwise I'm going to start removing people like Ansel Adams and other 20th century photographers from this category. Lexaxis7 (talk) 02:43, 7 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The question is, how does wikipedia classify pioneers of photography who did their work after 1880? Does wikipedia have a page for them, and if not, why not? Photography has coninuted to develope in various ways since 1880. For example, I have a submission being drafted about a person who was a pioneer in the development of cameras used for school photography in America, a sector of photography that has long since become ubiquitous. He began his work in 1924 and continued up through 1961. And how about Steve Sasson who put together the first true digital camera? How about Edward Land and his Polarid camera? These people may be listed in wikipedia by name, but what categories are appropriate for them? If you look them up there may be a dozen or more categories listed on their wikipedia page, but none that really identify their main historical accomplishment - a pioneering development in photography. To terminate the pioneers in photography at 1880 is unreasonable unless you have a similar page for the 20th Century, the 21st Century, etc.

RodgerCarter 03:28, 7 February 2012 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by RodgerCarter (talk • contribs)

It's an interesting question. What are the proper ways to classify people who contribute to the develop of a medium or art form? I'm not sure there is a definitive answer. I chose my criteria by a standard dictionary definition: "pioneer: one who is first or among the earliest in any field of inquiry or enterprise", but I'm sure there are other ways to consider this issue. Steve Jobs is certainly one of the most important people in computing, but I see that he is categorized as "American inventor" rather than "Technology pioneer". Perhaps the term "innovator" might be more appropriate for people like Edwin Land, Fred Archer, or Auguste and Louis Lumière. Would a phrase such as "Innovators in photography" be an appropriate category? I'd like to hear what others think. Lexaxis7 (talk) 04:20, 7 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

That would be good as it would allow a more appropriate categy for many people and still avoid the "pioneer" question. RodgerCarter — Preceding unsigned comment added by RodgerCarter (talk • contribs) 18:41, 7 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Pioneers?[edit]

The 1880 limit seems a bit far off. Photography wasn't that new by then. It makes more sense to set the time back further to 1860, which still contains a lot of people. Cesias7 (talk) 11:52, 3 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]