What is Romanticism in photography?
Romanticism placed particular emphasis on emotion, horror, awe, terror and apprehension. Emotion and feeling were central not only to the creation of the work, but also in how it should be read. The following characteristic attitudes of Romanticism are the following: a deepened appreciation of the beauties of nature; a general exaltation of emotion over reason and of the senses over intellect; a turning in upon the self and a heightened examination of human personality and its moods and mental potentialities
What Are the Characteristics of Romanticism?
- Emotion and passion.
- The critique of progress.
- A return to the past.
- An awe of nature.
- The idealization of women.
- The purity of childhood.
- The search for subjective truth.
- The celebration of the individual
Mood Board
Romanticism of Rural life/outcome
Nineteenth century urban society romanticized rural life. “The frontier farmer was idealized, and it was held to be true that life in the west fostered independence and self-reliance.” It was believed that life on the frontier consisted of a classless society in which people were judged not by their family name or position, but on their character, ability, and talent. The belief in “the nobility of country life” and the “purity of lives lived so close to the soil” contributed to the acceptance of the placing out movement by nineteenth century society. The west was viewed as the perfect place for the “urban poor to begin over and reach their full potential.” Brace actively pursued the placing out of New York City children in homes in rural America as a result of this idealization of rural life. He viewed the city as “an evil place full of temptations and unsavory associates.” Brace believed that children were easily corrupted by the immorality and wickedness they witnessed on the city streets and that this exposure doomed them to a life of crime and misery.
The country, on the other hand, represented a healthy, wholesome environment filled with opportunities for prosperity. Brace held a “startling idealized portrait of country folk.” He believed the tables of rural America overflowed with an abundance of nutritious food which rural families would be happy to share with hungry children. Brace believed that rural America was the “cradle of wholesome values.” He enthusiastically believed that rural families could be trusted to embrace the disadvantaged children of poor and educate them to become successful, productive members of society. The determination of Brace and the CAS to remove children from New York City, transport them across the country, and place them in rural homes, was a direct result of the romanticized view of rural life held by the majority of people living in nineteenth century society.
