Final answer:
The Industrial Revolution accelerated the need for portrait photography, leading to the rise of the Daguerreotype. It evolved as an art through the contributions of significant artists and became embedded in fine arts through museums and art organizations. Photography studios became widespread, with figures such as Nadar making significant contributions to its commercial and artistic expansion.
Step-by-step explanation:
From the beginning, the Industrial Revolution greatly influenced portrait photography. This period witnessed a burgeoning middle class whose demand for portraiture could not be efficiently satisfied through traditional oil painting, both due to volume and cost. Photography presented a solution, and the Daguerreotype became especially significant as the most popular method, despite its drawbacks such as frangibility and difficulties in copying.
Photography as Art began to gain traction through the efforts of artists like Julia Margaret Cameron and Ansel Adams. Museums and organizations, recognizing photography's artistic value, began incorporating it into their collections, further solidifying its status not merely as a functional tool but as an expressive medium on par with the fine arts.
Commercial photographic studios proliferated in Europe and America, with pioneers like Nadar marking their name in history. As photography evolved, its purposes expanded to encompass not only the recording of likenesses but also the presentation of photography within the realm of fine art.