I had an interesting discussion with an artist the other day. He said that photography doesn't really compare to real art e.g. painting on canvas, drawing etc.

His viewpoint is that a photo is pretty to look at, but it rarely "says" anything, and it's not a "part" of the artist that is being shown... or imbued into the artwork. Anyone in the same time/place could be able to take the same photograph. All the photographer does is take a snapshot of reality...

I disagreed. Personally I like photography more, but it has made me wonder. Most of my photo's can't be seen as very artistic, or can it. It's just basically a shot of some or other object.

So my quastion is this... does a photograph do anything except look pretty?