Pictorialism

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Pictorialism is one of the first and likely most influential photography movements. Beginning in the mid 1880's and spanning to roughly 1920 or so, Pictorialists were pivotal in establishing photography as a legitimate art medium and gaining acceptance as artists.

Pictorialism isn't bound by style or subject. However pictorialists dealt with two primary methods for distinguishing their images from mere documentation.

First the subjects and compositions were designed to bring a sense of fantasy or visual cohesion separating themselves from the documentation of every day life. Even landscape images tend to favor a sense of drama and effect to make the pictures more dynamic. Photographers such as Alice Boughton and Anne Brigman combined the human figure against landscape to a high degree of innovation. These images are still cutting edge by today's standards.

Secondly, photographers were beginning to manipulate the chemical process itself much in the way that a painter would control their materials. Gum bichromate was very popular at the time and photographers started applying brush strokes and other manipulations of the process to achieve a painter-like quality to the photographs. Photographers such as Robert Demachy took this to an extreme - the work takes on a sketchily charcoal or graphite quality. Soft focus and dramatic lighting are also used to create a painterly quality to the work as well. This idea was likely influenced by styles such as impressionism which was contemporary at the time.

Видео Pictorialism канала The Art of Photography