Like Morley, Richter is justifying the existence of painting through photography, their brand of Photorealism commenting on photography and image-making in general, and not just appropriating the look of a photograph. In the 1980s, Richter created a series of “history paintings” based on media photographs of the demise of members of the German terrorist Baader-Meinhof gang. These are vague images that call attention to the ambiguity of the photographs themselves, which become meaningful only when supplied with a context, generally a news story, although neither image nor text necessarily presents an absolute truth.

To date, critics, curators and collectors seem to prefer the headier work of Close, Morley and Richter, which raises issues that are seen as dominating the postmodern art of the last 50 years. And yet, it is surprising that in this era of postmodernism, which in theory does not apply qualitative values to art, more attention is not paid to the core group of Photorealists. Despite the admonition of postmodern theory against hierarchies of styles, media or artists, scholars and collectors alike continue to view the history of art as a landscape filled with mountain peaks, foothills and plains, placing the Rembrandts, Picassos and Rauschenbergs at the top and their followers below.

But Estes, Flack, Bechtle and the other Photorealists are hardly followers. They are just different. And more importantly, they and Close, Morley, and Richter as well as the silkscreened photographic images of Rauschenberg and Warhol are a reminder of the moment when photography was first recognized by the upper echelons of the art world as a powerful medium, one that was responsible for molding popular opinion, taste and worldviews. (It was also a time when photography itself increased in scale, functioning more like painting, and when it also became the favorite medium of Conceptual artists.) By the 1980s, photography, along with its “moving” cousin, video, would be hailed as a major art form, rivaling painting and sculpture for supremacy in the art world. But the turning point was the 1960s, and the Photorealists are the barometer of this storm that has transformed our perception of fine art.

Art critic and Art&Antiques Contributing Editor Joseph Jacobs is the executive director of the Chaim Gross Foundation and writes regularly on contemporary art.