Pictorialism

Pictorialism is a photographic movement that became fashionable following the widespread introduction of the dry-plate process, around 1885. It reached popularity in the early 20th Century and declined after 1914 due to Modernism which brought the idea that a photograph should look like a photograph. This idea contrasts greatly with Pictorialism; the aim of a Pictorialist being to take and create photographs that look like and are inspired by paintings. The general style of the images were usually black and white or sepia, also using methods such as soft focus, unusual printing methods and a lot of manipulation done in the darkroom. Some artists even etched the surface of their prints using fine needles, to gain the worn, textured look of a painting.

I have chosen this image by Edward Steichen (The Flatiron, 1904) to look at elements that make it fit in with the Pictorialism movement. The fact that the image is a combination of two photographs, combined by Steichen, makes it fit in with the Pictorialist approach. This result could never be achieved by taking one simple photograph, making it more painting-like in that it appears to be un-achievable through photography. 'The Flatiron' is seen to be the quintessential chromatic study of twilight, which is what I think has drawn me towards the image. As a fan of double exposures and the dreamy effect of such Pictorialist photographs, the image immediately stood out to me, along with the rich blue tones of this print. The image wqas created by adding the Gum Biochromate process over a platinum print, to add the colour effect to the image, a popular process in the Pictorialism movement. It appears alongside two other prints which vary in colour, which also shows the Pictorialism element in the image, in that the photograph can be seen in different colours, showing that it is more than just a photograph which when taken has one fixed set of colours, and that it can be interpreted and open in the same way a painting can be.