Photography radically changed many aspects of art. Its rise to popularity forced painters to evolve their techniques, styles, and themes. One of these themes was time. Impressionist and cubist both worked with aspects of time but in different ways. Impressionist tended to focus on capturing a specific point in time, whereas Cubist tended to capture a scene over a duration of time. While some people say that Cubism is the direct antithesis of Impressionism, Cubism really evolved from the ideas of Impressionism.

The start of the 1900's brings new technology, bigger cities, and more industry. The Futurist where fascinated by these things and had to figure out how to translate them into painting but in an original way. Much like Cubist, Futuristm used time to depicted a scene over an extended duration. However, unlike Cubist, Futurists used time to capture energy in their paintings. The paintings were less about the visual accuracy and more about the energy. Richard R. Brettell explains Futurist paintings as "a field of action or compressed observation."

The Crowd by Wyndham Lewis expertly shows the idea of a compressed observation. Painted near the beginning of WWI during a period of political turmoil, the painting conveys feelings of anxiety, urgency, and energy. No soft edges or smooth curves can be seen. There is no form to the city, it bends and wist at its own will, repeating its self in random geometric patterns.