Pictorialism

Pictorialism was created first in 1880 but flourished during the period of 1885- 1915 and it overall refers to style and aesthetic movements. It is the approach to photography which shows the beauty of the subject as well as the composition which creates the feel that it isn’t reality. It also refers to the style in which the photographer has manipulated an image, meaning its a created image.

Key Characteristics/Conventions- The people who first came up with the overall idea of this subject matter wanted their photographic work to be related closely to art and drawing, therefore they created techniques which made images look like paintings when they were taking the photograph eg, taking images in darkrooms, blurry/fuzzed images, soft focus, markings on canvas which all are based on religious scenes. Pictorialism also dismays the industrial exploitation of photography which connects to professional establishment. Following this, the photographs give individual expressions.

Artists Associated

• Julia Margaret Cameron- She was a photographer in the Victoria era and she is known for her closely framed portraits and illustrative/ religious works. Her photographs are unconventional and have a particular created blur through long exposures.
• Sally Mann (1951)- She creates haunting images which represents the loss of life. She includes a lot of darkness in her mixed landscape and portrait images which explores the divide between body and souk, and life and death. This is clearly shown in her images of decomposing bodies and portraits of her children.
• Peter Henry Emerson (1856-1936)- He has a theory of Naturalistic Photography which the subject of Pictorialism used to promote photography as an overall art. He handcrafted the prints in a visual form.

Key works

Methods/ techniques/ processes- The first technique being putting Vaseline on the camera lens which created a smudge allowing a symbolic meaning to do with religion. This is also an example of pictorial photographs lacking sharp focus, creating its overall style. Some work as groups to create more ideas, not very good quality cameras are used as they intend a blur anyway.

Realism/Straight Photography

Photo-Realism photography first began in the 1920s and became extremely popular in the 1960s as it became more well known and took overall photography as an inspiration. Photographers who photograph realist images are called ‘Photo- Realists’ and they are people who created high quality images which are illusionistic and reproduce the original image.

Key Characteristics/Conventions- Realism is known as a style of photography which creates an image for what it is, a pure documentary style. It is a very accurate and doesn’t have any metaphorical manners as it focuses on real people in their natural situations. The photographers who capture these moments use sharp focus techniques and use a wide depth of field in order to capture the whole scene, representing the realistic side. In relation, Straight Photography is closely associated with Realism and these photographers believe in intrinsic qualities and it has an ability to provide records of the visual world through descriptive aspects.

A smaller group in the subject of Realism, ‘Social Reform Photography’ which is when people photograph the conditions in which people live in and represents how different it is to a ‘average’ persons living way.

Artists Associated

• Walker Evens (1903-1975)- Evens was a documentary photographer in the 20th century who previously rejected Pictorialism as he wanted to create new photographic art which has an obscure look. He photographed several families who work on different farms to represent their uniforms, backgrounds/ living environments. He also made a book which shows all the different families in comparison.
• Alfrid Stieglitz- He tells images through a story through capturing images of immigrants in abstract pictures.

Key Works

Methods/ techniques/ processes- There is a constant use of a sharp focus which allows for the image being taken to be seen in detail, this also represents the ‘Realism’ aspect in detail. A wide depth of field is also seen the be used which again, shows the realism. The use of environmental photography is supporting the overall role.