Pictorialism was one of the earliest and most influential photography movements that began in the 1880s and aimed to establish photography as a legitimate art form. Pictorialist photographers sought to distinguish their images from mere documentation by using dramatic compositions and subjects that conveyed a sense of fantasy or visual cohesion. They also manipulated the chemical development process similarly to how painters used their materials, applying techniques like brush strokes, soft focus, and dramatic lighting to achieve a painterly quality. This movement influenced the development of styles like impressionism and produced famous photographers including Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Steichen, helping to gain acceptance of photography as a serious artistic medium.

1. PHOTOGRAPHIC GENRES
Pictorialism

2. Pictorialism is
one of the first
and likely most
influential
photography
movements.

3. Beginning in the mid
1880′s and spanning
to roughly 1920 or
so, Pictorialists were
pivotal in
establishing
photography as a
legitimate art
medium and gaining
acceptance as
artists.

4. Photography faced
an acceptance
challenge at its
birth. A way of
capturing an image
and fix it to a
surface was
exceptionally
innovative, but is
it art or mere
documentation?

5. This was the
argument many of
the early
practitioners faced
and struggled
with. The art world
was very skeptical
of this type of
“automated”
drawing.

6. As a result, a
school of
photographers
came forth with
the intent of
giving
photography
validity as a
serious form of
art.

7. Pictorialism isn’t
bound by style or
subject. However
pictorialists dealt
with two primary
methods for
distinguishing
their images
from mere
documentation.

8. First the subjects
and compositions
were designed to
bring a sense of
fantasy or visual
cohesion
separating
themselves from
the
documentation of
every day life.

9. Even landscape images tend to favor a
sense of drama and effect to make the
pictures more dynamic.

10. Photographers such as Alice Boughton and Anne
Brigman combined the human figure against
landscape to a high degree of innovation.

11. These images
are still cutting
edge by today’s
standards.

12. Secondly, photographers were beginning to
manipulate the chemical process itself much in the
way that a painter would control their materials.

13. Gum bichromate was very popular at the time and
photographers started applying brush strokes and
other manipulations of the process to achieve a
painter-like quality to the photographs.

14. Photographers
such as Robert
Demachy took
this to an
extreme – the
work takes on a
sketchily
charcoal or
graphite quality.

15. Soft focus and
dramatic lighting
are also used to
create a
painterly quality
to the work as
well.

16. This idea was likely influenced by styles such as
impressionism which was contemporary at the time.

17. More famous
later pictorialists
are Alfred
Stieglitz,
who developed
into a modernist
style,

18. and Edward
Steichen, who
produced one of
the first
coloured prints.

19. The dreamy,
painterly
appearance of
bromoil prints
was very popular
with the
Pictoralist
movement.

20. To reproduce a bromoil process digitally, one
can apply in camera techniques such as
adjusting the focus or intentionally blurring a
scene or subject to produce a softer image and
create movement.

21. A wide-angle lens can be used to distort
the image and create uneven lines to
replicate an impressionistic style
artwork.

22. Increasing the ISO
can also help create
noise in the image
to replicate the
grainy
characteristics of
bromoil images.

23. Warming filters can be used to create a
warm tone over the overall image. Even
coloured filters can be used to create a
colour cast over an image.

24. Photoshop allows for the manipulation
of tonal ranges. Photoshop also allows
for other effects such as, dodging &
burning, B&W, Sepia and other coloured
tones.

25. It also offers brushes and built-in filters
to create painterly affects.

26. One can also add
noise, dust and
scratches and
blur to an image
to try and
replicate the
style of bromoil
images.