It is said that a picture can paint a thousand words. This one certainly does. A vast rhinoceros rests beneath the afternoon sun, sitting back to back with her human companion. There is beauty in the relationship between man and animal. But there is also sorrow. Najin is one of only two northern white rhinos left in the world. Soon her subspeciesA particular type within a species. will be extinct.¹

This extraordinary picture was taken by the Slovenian photographer Matjaz Krivic. Earlier this week he beat 20,000 other entries to win the Travel Photographer of the Year award. A second photo by Krivic, capturing a hand caressing the rhino's face, also stunned judges. His competition included a heron flying with a skinkA small type of lizard. in its mouth, a mouse-eye view of a mighty elephant and a portrait of Mongolian wrestlers.

These images confirm the power of a good photograph. Yet photography was not originally considered art. Although it was invented in 1839, it took around 150 years for museums to start exhibiting it alongside painting and sculpture. 

Critics believed that images produced by a machine showed no imagination.² Panicked painters worried for their future now that cameras could produce more accurate portraits.³ At best, photos were a tool to help painting.

Today, some would argue that photography is the greatest art form of all. If greatness was determined by popularity, photography would top the charts. Photos are everywhere. Unlike more 3D artworks, they translate well to the screen and can be easily shared digitally.

Some think the best art should be able to speak to all. Photos do. As New York Times Magazine Director of Photography Kathy Ryan writes: "Photographs are the universal language of our era. Everyone has hundreds, maybe thousands in their pocket." We can all participate. An estimated 1.81 trillion photos are taken worldwide every year, around five billion a day and 600,000 a second.

The lens might even be more truthful than our own eyes. Moments pass us swiftly and are quickly forgotten. Yet photographs freeze an instant in time forever. As American photographer Alfred Stieglitz said: "In photography there is a reality so subtle that it becomes more real than reality."

Others strongly disagree. The Guardian art critic Jonathan Jones writes: "A photograph in a gallery is a flat, soulless, superficialOn the surface only. substitute for painting." For Jones, painting requires talent, skill, creativity and hard work, not to mention many expensive (and sometimes unpleasant) materials.

A good painting has many layers. But a photograph only captures the surface. Great art requires graftHard work. and struggle. But a photo is created in a split second. A photographer can keep clicking the button until they get the best picture.

Some believe that the best art has a role in shaping our future. Many of today's best artists seek to bring people together, solve social problems and push the world onto a different course. But photos always face backwards. As photographer Berenice Abbott says: "Photography can only represent the present. Once photographed, the subject becomes part of the past." 

Yes: The goal of art is to be beautiful. The great Romantic poet John Keats wrote that "beauty is truth, truth beauty". Photography is the art form closest to the truth, and therefore the most beautiful. 

No: The best art jolts us out of our daily lives and makes us think. But thanks to print, advertising and social media, photography is now so ubiquitous that it has become part of this everyday clutter.

Or... There is no greatest modern art form. Photography, film, painting, sculpture, drawing, printmaking, performance, installation art, digital art, land art: all of these and more form a rich tapestry.