To prove that photography was indeed an art, and not just a craft?

Question

Is this statement true or false?

To prove that photography was indeed an art, and not just a craft, photographers at first imitated the painting of the time.

Answer 1

True. Just as the printing press brought literacy and literature to the masses the camera brought art to the average person. One of the primary motivating factors for the development of a photographic process was to eliminate the cost, and sitting time necessary for having someone paint your portrait. Granted that today we have a very different version of what is cosidered art, in the 1840's, the time in which the Dagguereotype process became available, portraiture wasn't a craft but an art. Dagguereotype artists or craftspeople as is perhaps the better term composed their portraiture similar to how artists trained at the major art academies at the time composed their portraits. However, Dagguereotype artists as a whole were more chemists and craftspeople than true artists. I think the first person really to try to bridge that gap between photographer and artist was Oscar Gustave Rejlander with his photo, "the two ways of life".
Actually what is more interesting is that a lot of photographers supplied images to artists so in a way it was the artist that copied the photographer and not the other way around so much. A good example of an early photographer providing work for artist would be Eugene Atget.