Can art be mechanically reproduced?

When something is reproduced for so many times is that art? What's the importance of the mechanical reproducibility of the art? What was the impact on mechanical reproducibility on the society?

In my opinion, art is still considered art, no matter how many times it is reproduced. Painters have used photography as a sense inspiration, change of view point by painting an object or subject in a number of angles. However, there is a sense of ethical issue when it comes to reproducing art. The feel of originality sometimes gets blurred because it is difficult to determine which pieces are the original and which ones are the duplicates. The importance of mechanical reproducibility of the art is that art is evolving. By this, I mean that art is embracing digital technology. Although, painting is not a dead form, graphic designing is increasing and a lot of artists are using this medium more and more because of the variety of techniques that can be done using technology. Because of this, mechanical reproducibility on the society due to the increasing technology. There are many masterpieces that have been duplicated and from what I said previously, there is an ethical issue involved. People have been made to believe that some art pieces are original and they are sold these pieces. Also, currency from many countries have been duplicated because of mechanical reproducibility.

Is photography art, or contribution to the art? Is it just a tool used by artists?

As I mentioned previously, photography is a medium of art and I also believe that it contributes to art. Graphic designers and painters use photography as inspiration and as their canvas for their artwork. Directors also use photographs to analyze what would be the best angles for their films because then they'll be able to see where everything is placed in a scene.

How and why Henry Peach Robinson created Fading Away? What was the reason?
Henry Peach Robinson's 'Fading Away' is both an albumen print (a method of producing a photographic print on a paper base from a negative) and combination print (a method using two or more photographic images in conjunction from one another to create a single image - in this case five negatives). He created 'Fading Away' from his imagination to show a human being's experience with something painful, which shows here a realistic portrayal of a grieving family.

Photography has impacted the world of art and influenced some changes in the area of accessibility to art. If mechanical reproduction created revolution, what is happening now with digitalization?

Mechanical reproduction has evolved digitalization in many ways. Photographs can be enhanced to the point where a person's facial flaws can be removed, a person's body or face can be corrected to the point of perfection or a simple landscape photograph can be altered to where adding an object that wasn't there before can be placed to create a totally different picture.