Pictorialism
Pictorialism was in the time period of the 1880s so in-between the 19th-20th century, which was the time of the second industrial revolution. Romanticism was also extremely popular during this time as well. A pictorialism photograph was like a painting, engraving or a drawing. It was a way of projecting an emotional intent into a viewer’s imagination. The characteristics pictorialism displayed were the blurred, fuzzy and textured images that almost look like paintings, this was through manipulating images, which is a key feature in pictorialism. Artists were inspired by spiritual and allegorical motifs, which includes religious scenes. The images created in this movement reacted against the industrial revolution not accepting the modernist movement. Allegorical painting, which might include figures symbolic of different emotional states- for example love was an inspiration for this movement. The key characteristics spoken about before were used by pictorialist artists by using a slow shutter speed, or they made the lens intentionally out of focus, which resulted in the fuzzy or blurred effect. They also use the technique of manipulating images when they are being developed in the dark room, which is called photocarvoe.
One of the main artists were Julia Margaret Cameron, who was a victorian photographer in the late 19th century. She specifically worked on closely framed portraits and also illustrative allegories based on religious literary works. Her images almost look like paintings or detailed drawings, she used typical techniques such as texturing the images, scratching them and also making the outer edges of the photograph blurry, which makes the viewers focus on the centre on the image as it draws our eyes to the sharp area of the image. This is seen throughout many pieces of her work and they look like they have been inspired by allegorical paintings as they are emotive and show emotion within the image.
Realism / Straight Photography
Straight photography is sometimes known as pure photography, which refers to photography that depict a situation with sharp detail and full focus as is therefore capturing exactly what they see. It became popular as early as 1904, this was when they started to move away from pictorialism as people felt it was manipulated too much as preferred photographs having more realistic features, which focused on documenting events and every day life as they saw it. The term straight photography was used by Sadakichi Hartmann in the camera work magazine and was later promoted by the editor Alfred Stieglitz. This was seen as capturing the truth, without manipulation and was seen as a celebration of the quality of the camera at this time. The key characteristic was really just true and real images, which represent elements of social, economical, political and culture and this was later named documentary photography. Similarly, realism claims to have a special relationship with reality and shows the cameras ability to record real events and real life without manipulation. Its a way in which the photographer sees the world and the way they choose to photograph it- portraying the truth. Key documentary or straight/realism photographers are Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand, Edward Weston and Philip Hyde.
Paul Strand was an influential photographer and early icon of the “straight photography”. In contrast to Pictorialism, “Straight Photography” was a move to “pure photography”, which was loosely defined as having stylistic traits that were not manipulated heavily to mimic other art forms such as painting. A modernist, Strand was highly influenced by Alfred Stieglitz and Charles Sheeler. His work had a huge impact on the f/64 school of photographers such as Ansel Adams and Edward Weston. He was driven to document his city with complete photographic objectivity, he created a means of shooting his subjects candidly. He worked out that by screwing in a false lens to one side of his camera pointing ahead while concealing the real lens under his arm facing his subjects, he was able to achieve such result. Most of his portraits were shot that way, including the seminal 1916 image of a blind street beggar (Blind), now an icon of early American modernism.
Modernism
Modernism rejects older movements favouring new art movements and experimental ways of producing art. It has characteristics of science saving the world, with a common trend being the ways to seek answers to important questions about the nature of art and society. One factor which shaped modernism was the development of modern industrial societies and the rapid growth of cities, followed then by reactions of horror to WW1. The world we are living in now is very different from the world of the past in terms of art so this makes the art movements that were popular previously, now out of date and no longer fit the world and are not popular within that generation. Another characteristic is that the view of the artist being the most important thing when producing the image or art form. Modernism is often seen as celebrating technology and machinery, this is very futuristic. The new art movements begun to question what art really is and how it supports other aspects of the world. The invention of photography was part of the step towards modernism because it deals with both machinery and technology. It is the modern way of image making, which contributed to the development of modernism and the modern society.
A well known modernist photographer is Alexander Rodchenko. He is regarded as one of the most vibrant and progressive artists to emerge from Russia in the 20th century. With his work spanning painting, graphic design, photography and advertising, he continues to be widely recognized as one of the founders of the Constructivist movement and the father of modern Russian design. By rejecting conventional art forms, he radically contributed to the visual framework of Russia’s social and political values, influencing the development of European Modernist art. Rodchenko repeatedly manipulated angles, contrasts and tilts to achieve new perspectives and prevent passive viewing experiences. He wrote that “one has to take several different shots of a subject, from different points of view and in different situations, as if one examined it in the round rather than looked through the same key-hole again and again.” The drive for new perspectives echoed a yearning for a reformulation of aesthetics, one that was in tune with social and political developments. Modernism can be viewed as abstract, which is something you can see running through Alexander’s photographs.
Post-modernism
Postmodernism is a way of thinking about culture, philosophy, art and many other subjects. The term postmodernism has been used in many different ways at different times since it was established in the late 20th century, but there are some things in common with each way.
Postmodernism can be described in varies different ways- such as:
- Postmodernism states that there is no real truth. It says that knowledge is made or invented and that it is not discovered because knowledge is made by people. Because of this, a person cannot know something with certainty – all facts are therefore ‘believed’ instead of being ‘known’. When people believe that they know what the truth is, postmodernism says that they will soon think the truth is something different later.
- Since postmodernism says that the truth is just a thing that people invent, it therefore says that people can believe in different things and think it is the truth and it all be right. Postmodernism says that one person should not try to force someone else to believe what he believes, because it means nothing saying that one belief is right and the other is wrong. In Postmodernism, if somebody has a belief and tries to make somebody else believe it also, it means that they are just trying to gain power over the other.
- Something else about postmodernism is that it is very Meta, meaning it is self-aware. When it comes to this in photography, it is saying that it makes references to thing outside of the art of photography, for example things like: political, cultural, social, historical, psychological issues.
An Example of an post-modernist artist is Andy Warhol. He is someone who I actually studied in the first year of photography when looking out environment and I found his work extremely interesting. He is an American film director/producer as well as an artist, where he is the leading figure of Pop Art. He explores varies themes in his work such as linking expression, celebrity culture and advertising together in the 1960’s. He is most famous for his silk screening images, for example his Campbell’s tomato soup image, however he also explored other mediums such as photography, painting and sculpture. In photography there are always debates on whether certain images are real or they have been over-manipulated. Pop Art itself raises these questions, some people believe it is a genius idea, which expresses creativity within the postmodern era and others would argue it has been over manipulated and therefore is not true. However, Andy preferres to focus on what his work actually means and what he is trying to get across rather than whether the image is a true representation of the object or event. He also uses text to help him with this as he tries to get across messages through imagery supported by a strong statement. Andy Warhol’s work interpreted as style over substance because for what the art actually is, bold colours and simple shapes.
