American Photography has many genres including Art, Photography & War, Digital Truth, Presidential Image-making, Advertising & Persuasion, Social Change, and Cultural Identity. These genres or categories of photography, each have their own specific meaning and all photographs can fit into one or two of these genres. The definition of these genres are:
- Art: Photographs of art or a photo of something relating to art.
- War: Photographs taken of war scenes that usually have lots of meaning.
- Digital Truth: Photographs in which editing or cropping is questionable.
- Presidential: Photographs taken of political parties/event and of the president.
- Persuasion: Photographs that are taken for ads that usually persuade someone to do something, like a campaign or advertisement.
- Social Change: Photographs that show problems in the world and spread word of the problem to solve it.
- Cultural Identity: Photographs that show the culture, religion, or ethnic beliefs of a certain race/country.
This is a bell found in a Japanese temple and the bell can weigh over 1 ton and it takes many methods and strengths of a monk to accurately ring the bell. It also has only specific times when it should be rung. This photograph is in the genre of Cultural Identity because this photo is showing and identifying something that is of a different culture.