Photography, with the advent of computer and computer technology has traveled so far from its roots that it is difficult to define what is photography today or what are its types. In its origin, as compared to traditional illustrations or paintings, photography was taken to be a means of faithful reproduction of objects or scenes. In fact, to a great extent, photography was used and is still being used for documentation and identification through images. One of the principal occupational usage of this type of photography is found in photojournalism or in the work of the creation of photographs for identification. However, with computers and photo processing software having the ability to radically alter images; photography has become an art form much removed from photographing for documentation.

Today’s photographers argue that all photographs are ultimately illusions because three dimensions can never be represented in two. Ultimately, they argue that photographers have never been faithful in representing objects or scenes, but have always imposed their decisions upon what to include or exclude from a photograph, and where to put focus and where not to. And that is where photography becomes art, not in faithful representation, but in the representation of an object or scene as visualized by the photographer. So, they argue processing images in computer software and creating new images that illustrate the vision of a photographer in relation to an object or scene is proper photography, while people who see photography only as a means of documentation, cry foul.

Anyway, while the debate rages on, it is prudent to be functional and categorize the types of photography popular today in terms of occupation and livelihood. Such categories and types of photography, most of which would necessarily overlap each other and cannot stand alone, include photojournalism, outdoor photography, indoor photography, fashion photography, photography for preparing commercial advertisements, amateur photography, nature photography, still-life photography, wildlife photography, food photography, art photography, underwater photography, aerial photography, portrait photography, social events photography, and all kinds of photography that you can think of – anything that either provides a livelihood or provides pleasure to the photographer – the categorization only depends upon your imagination.

However, for occupational types, documentary photography, commercial photography (including advertising or fashion photography), and nature photography are the three main divisions. Now if you need to go underwater to shoot nature photography it does develop extra nuances, as you would be requiring extra equipment that is specialized. Similarly, according to the requirements of specialized equipment we can also create types of photography like desert photography or snow photograph, though they would all fall under nature photography.

So, in the end, categorization or creating types of photography really depends upon purpose, equipment, and the potential of earning money or a livelihood. So, telling a story with images becomes documentary photography and so on and so forth. However, whichever type of photography you engage in, at least you need a camera (or a mobile phone?) to create images, and a computer to process them. Darkroom processing has become obsolete, celluloid films are only in archives and special labs, and the camera obscura has receded to the realm of obscure knowledge. Today, only your imagination and equipment are the limitations to what you can do with photography and to which use you intend to put shots taken by your camera.

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