When photography was born way back in 1839, some laughed at the new technology, insisting that it was no art form. Others were afraid.

Think of Walter Benjamin's seminal essay "Art in the Time of Mechanical Reproduction." In this work Benjamin worries about the power photographic (read reproductive) images could have in the artistic realm. If one could photograph the Mona Lisa and reproduce it ad nauseum, then everyone could have Mona hanging in their room. Would that not strip the original of its inherent value?

For years people would make a pilgrimage to the Louvres etc to view masterpieces. Now with the arrrival of the bastard technology, the inherent value of art was placed in jeopardy. (Never mind the matter of prints fiscally devaluing an original painting.)

Benjamin makes a very compelling case, but as we know, there's no stopping the march of time or technology. Adapt or be steam rollered. And the arts have most certainly adapted themselves to the photographic medium. To address the incredible changes the artform underwent in the late 20th century, the AGO has mounted a show entitled The Bigger Picture. They've assembled a group of images from Canadian and international artists (gleaned for the collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario and some private collections in Toronto) and put together a truly informative show.

Here's how photography has morphed in the last 40 years. "In the 1960s artists began to use photography to document fugitive art forms such as performance and site-specific projects. Independent pieces often emerged from the conceptual processes facilitated by the camera. By the 1980s the artistic appropriation of found images from the mass media had become one of the hallmarks of artistic practices known as post-modernist."

During this time Canada's own Jeff wall achieved international art star status for "large back-lit photographic works that refer to the history of representational practices, particularly painting." Cindy Sherman's challenging self-portraits wherein she "plays various stereotypical female roles that make reference to film and advertising have also become icons of our times.

In the 1990s a proliferation of large-scale photographic works and related video projections dominated major international exhibitions. Indeed, photography is the medium shared by some of today's most celebrated artists. Among these, the work of Gillian Wearing (Britain), Willie Doherty (N. Ireland), Stan Douglas (Canada), Geneviève Cadieux (Canada), Sharon Lockhart (USA) and the Germans Thomas Struth, Andreas Gursky and Thomas Ruff is testimony to photography's broad potential."

The Bigger Picture is finishing its run all too soon -- make time for a trip to the AGO.