Exploring the different ways in which art and photography have intertwined, the author underlines the crucial role played by art in the mutations of the photographic image, and the importance of photography for the birth and evolution of modern art. Effectively comparing historical overview and thematic treatment, from pictorialism and the documentary “naked image” to the conceptual, archival or narrative uses of photography, the essay shows how vital, varied and constantly expanding this art form is today. Bate focuses on the increasingly global nature of the phenomenon, accounting not only for the Anglo-American and European context but also for important emerging regions of Asia, Africa and the Middle East, considering historical names such as William Henry Fox Talbot and Roger Fenton alongside artists such as Lee Miller, Brassaï, Robert Frank, Nan Goldin, Ed Ruscha and Gillian Wearing.