Much of realist picture-making has been "lens based" for thousands of years.
Think about it: the lens of a camera or an eye forms a real optical image of things in the field of view. The real optical image is cast upon a sensor.
The sensor may be a megapixel transducer or retina that serves to convert the image into a stream of electrical pulses that travel up a cable and are stored in a memory located in a brain. The brain may be organic or electronic. What is stored in the memory is not an image but a coded description of one. Later the coded description can be edited, altered, or augmented according to whim. The final code is downloaded to create a visible picture. This is achieved by using the code to control the activities of a mark-making device.
If the mark-making system is a human mind+hand+brush or pencil then the end result is a painting or drawing. Lens based? Definitely yes.
If the mark-making system is a printer or display monitor then we have digital picture-making. Lens based? Definitely yes.
Alternatively to the above scenarios the sensor might be a light-sensitive substance that is changed in situ by the impact of the real optical image. The sensor itself becomes the picture. Even though here there is no megapixel transducer, no data stream, no memory, no brain, no re-processing, and no mark-making system, the final picture is still lens based. This sequence described in this paragraph is unique to photography and separates it from painting, drawing, and digital picture-making.
There are some other realist image making techniques. For example death masks, life casts, wax impressions, graphite rubbings, papier mache moulds, cliche verre, and contact exposures on light sensitive substrates. Lens based? Definitely not.
Opinion: the concept "lens based art" is flawed in that it lumps together things that are different: painting/drawing/digi-pix compared to photography. Differences include the relationship of pictures to subject matter, indirect and optional versus direct and obligatory. And the relationship between artist and medium is different too. In painting/drawing/digi-pix the artist fabricates. In photography, a physical process constrained by the laws of chemistry and physics, the artist facilitates.
Think about it: the lens of a camera or an eye forms a real optical image of things in the field of view. The real optical image is cast upon a sensor.
The sensor may be a megapixel transducer or retina that serves to convert the image into a stream of electrical pulses that travel up a cable and are stored in a memory located in a brain. The brain may be organic or electronic. What is stored in the memory is not an image but a coded description of one. Later the coded description can be edited, altered, or augmented according to whim. The final code is downloaded to create a visible picture. This is achieved by using the code to control the activities of a mark-making device.
If the mark-making system is a human mind+hand+brush or pencil then the end result is a painting or drawing. Lens based? Definitely yes.
If the mark-making system is a printer or display monitor then we have digital picture-making. Lens based? Definitely yes.
Alternatively to the above scenarios the sensor might be a light-sensitive substance that is changed in situ by the impact of the real optical image. The sensor itself becomes the picture. Even though here there is no megapixel transducer, no data stream, no memory, no brain, no re-processing, and no mark-making system, the final picture is still lens based. This sequence described in this paragraph is unique to photography and separates it from painting, drawing, and digital picture-making.
There are some other realist image making techniques. For example death masks, life casts, wax impressions, graphite rubbings, papier mache moulds, cliche verre, and contact exposures on light sensitive substrates. Lens based? Definitely not.
Opinion: the concept "lens based art" is flawed in that it lumps together things that are different: painting/drawing/digi-pix compared to photography. Differences include the relationship of pictures to subject matter, indirect and optional versus direct and obligatory. And the relationship between artist and medium is different too. In painting/drawing/digi-pix the artist fabricates. In photography, a physical process constrained by the laws of chemistry and physics, the artist facilitates.