Anastas Jovanović, a pioneer of the European photography, had an immeasurable impact on Serbian visual culture. Not only did he enrich it with his numerous photographs and lythographs, but he also singlehandedly created some of the iconic scenes of the modern Serbian national identity, such as the images of: Duke Mihailo, Duchess Julija, Vuk Karadžić, Bishop Njegoš, Duke Danilo, Duchess Persida Karađorđević, Kleopatra Karađorđević, Patriarch Rajačić, Metropolitan Petar Jovanović, Toma Vučić Perišić, Ilija Garašanin, Captain Miša Anastasijević, Uzun Mirko, Milica Stojadinović Serb, Branko Radičević, Ljuba Nenadović, Đura Daničić, Dimitrije Avramović, Jeremija Stanojević, Prince Marko, Brigand Veljko, and others.

During the 19th century, Anastas Jovanović was one of the artists and public servants for the Dukedom of Serbia who, supported by the political elite, foremost by Obrenović dynasty, has created and developed the Dukedom’s new modern image, using the new visual media. His multilayered and complex art works had enabled the transfer of modern European currents, and new technical knowledge into the system of Serbian visual culture, in the 19th century. Popularisation of this culture by the use of lythograpic and photographic media, had influenced the tastes and sense for nice things throughout the young Dukedom. It had also enabled the transfer of art from the domain of a high-class and closed artistic practice, embodied in the medium of painting, to the framework of mass media distribution and accessible visual culture.