I enjoyed how Bazin detailed the extent to which photography altered the plastic arts, while managing to find a place for it, as well as for painting. Often, especially in new media, we find ourselves confronted with the fact that our artistic mediums subsist off the reproducible image, and it becomes inevitable to question the degree to which we're neglecting what can be considered, "the genuine article" - this 'genuine article' nought be confused with the 'realism' that Bazin spoke to in the Ontology of the Photographic Image though, but to the materiality in art fashioned exclusively by the artist. Noting the "obsession" we have with realism, I like how Bazin points out that with the advent of photography it became no longer the job, or responsibility of the painter as artist, to create something "realistic" - allowing painting to be able to exist and be appreciated as it's own thing. At the same time, he has quite a respectful outlook on how photography treats this same role from which it is inseparable. Instead of, harbinger of the reproducible image, photography is the "embalmer of time", "rescuing it simply from it's proper corruption" (whoa dude.) - also noting that photography has an effect similar to nature, where the object is inseparable from it's beauty....
Again, I think it's impressive how well Bazin finds room for both mediums that are often put into ideological competition with one another. My personal feeling though, and i hope it to be correct someday, is that something else will come along exposing the falseness of even the photograph, and it too will become appreciated as it's own thing. I think if our awareness continues to grow and expand, than one day the photograph will have nothing to do with a singular, present, real moment - it will be an imitation of that, like the portrait painting is to it's model.
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