Pictorialism

From Free net encyclopedia

Pictorialism was a photographic movement in vogue from around 1885 following the widespread introduction of the dry-plate process, and reached its height in the early years of the 20th century. It largely subscribed to the idea that art photography needed to emulate the painting and etching of the time. Most of these pictures are black and white or sepia. Among the methods used were soft focus, special filters and lens coatings, heavy manipulation in the darkroom, and exotic printing processes. From 1898 rough-surface printing papers were added to the repertoire, to further break up a picture's sharpness. The aim of such techniques was to achieve what the 1911 Britannica termed, in disussing Pictorialism, "personal artistic expression".

Despite the aim of artistic expression, the best of such photographs paralleled the impressionist style then current in painting and, looking back from the present day, we can also see close parallel between the composition and picturesque subject of genre paintings and the bulk of pictorialist photography.

The 1911 Britannica encylopedia noted that: "as a distinct movement pictorial photography is essentially of British origin", although in its later phases there was a strong influence on American photography. The Linked Ring and The New American School were notable organised tendencies in Pictorialism around 1900. An American circle of photographers later renounced pictorialism altogether and went on to found Group f/64, which espoused the ideal of unmanipulated, or straight photography.

The contemporary American portraitist Sally Mann revisited the pictorialist style in her 2003 book What Remains.de:Pictorialismus es:Pictorialismo fr:Pictorialisme it:Pittorialismo