PICTORIALISM

time period : 1880 – 1920

Key characteristics/ conventions : to make photography an accepted art form – was influenced by allegory paintings – was to separate photography as an art form from photography used towards various scientific and documentary purposes.

Artists associated: Louis Dagueree, Alfred Stieglitz,
Henry Peach Robinson, Clarence Hudson White

Key works: Daguerreotype, Calotype

Influences: One of the key figures in establishing both the definition and direction of pictorialism was American Alfred Stieglitz, who began as an amateur but quickly made the promotion of pictorialism his profession and obsession.

Methods/ techniques/ processes: gum printing, putting Vaseline on a lens, using specific chemicals

REALISM / STRAIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY

Time period: 1915 – up until this day

Key characteristics/ conventions : to photograph things as they were without any manipulation

Artists associated: Paul Strand (inspired by cubism), Walker Evans, Edward Western

Key works: Walker Evans – subway series, The Stone Breakers – Gustave Courbet

Influences: Within the Realism Art movement, artists moved away from the previously Romantic style that had dictated artistic creation in favor of capturing a truthful representation of life. This led scenes, objects, and subjects to be depicted in a meticulous, accurate, and detailed way.

Methods/ techniques/ processes: uses the camera and photograph to gather information

MODERNISM

Time period: 1910 – 1950

Key characteristics/ conventions : clean lines, sharp focus and repetition of form.

Artists associated: Olive Cotton, Alfred Stieglitz

Key works:

• Wall Street, 1915.
• Abstractions, Twin Lakes, Connecticut 1916.
• Chair, Abstract, 1916.
• Blind, 1916.
• House, Benbecula, Hebrides, 1954. .

Methods/ techniques/ processes: cropping and framing a single body part, distorting and accentuating its curves and angles.

POST-MODERNISM

Time period: 1950 – to this day

Key characteristics/ conventions : explores power and the way economic and social forces exert that power by shaping the identities of individuals and entire cultures

Artists associated: Lee Friedlander, William Eggleston, Jeff Wall, Andreas Gursky

Key works: Postmodernism makes references to things outside the art work…e.g. political, cultural, social, historical,
psychological issues

Methods/ techniques/ processes: Bricolage, surrealism, expressionism, intertextuality, eclecticism