March 2025, Great Pictorialist Photographers – Part 1

News about happenings at Deliberate Light and photography instruction (see Digital Photo cademy). My views on this month’s photography topic: Great Pictorialist Photographers. To get these newsletters by email a month before they are posted here, go to the DeliberateLight.com website and click on Newsletter Signup.

NEWS

Upcoming Workshops. I am scheduled to teach workshops for Digital Photo Academy on April 5th at Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia. You can sign up here if interested.

· Mastering Your Camera Controls (1.5 hours) – intended for DSLR/Mirrorless/Compact cameras (smartphone tutorial available separately)

· Composition in the Field (3 hours) – walking tour around the venue with instruction and hands-on practice composing photos (bring any camera)

New Photo.

Girders. Every time I step onto the train platform for the commuter train at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia, I am struck by the march of iron structures down the train platform. These exposed girders are a very Frank Furness kind of architectural style. Furness, a huge influence on architects Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright and many others including Rose Valley’s own William L. Price, did not shy away from openly displaying the functional aspects of a building without trying to hide it behind decoration. The feeling in this space is open and airy, despite the heaviness of the girders. I always feel like my journey through there is somehow made more significant by their magnificence.

(Philadelphia, PA, 2017)

For a more detailed, enlarged view and to get it printed, see it on my website.

VIEWS

Great Pictorialist Photographers – Part 1.

Pictorialism was a movement in photography that began in the late 1800’s with the goal of achieving credibility as an art form by trying to emulate paintings. Why were they doing that? Here is a little background.

Photography began to be widespread with the daguerreotype in 1848 and then, with glass plate negatives in the 1860’s, it became practical to use darkroom techniques to manipulate images, i.e., to get creative. The art world took notice. A long-running debate ensued over what the proper use of photography was with respect to art and whether photography could ever be art.

Realism was the prevalent art style at that time. Photography was seen as the ultimate in capturing reality and so posed a conundrum if not a threat to the art establishment. It was commonly agreed that photography could be useful as an aid to artists for providing a model to paint from and that photographs of “real art” could be invaluable in teaching art appreciation, but opinions differed on whether photography could never itself be an art.

Regardless, creative use of the new medium persisted and, as its technology progressed, it became easier for photographers to focus more on artistic effects and less on mechanical and chemical operations. By the 1860’s if not sooner, some photographers were trying to express emotion and feeling in their images, not just provide a record of a scene. They adopted many of the composition elements of painting (lighting, positioning, perspective, etc.) and used techniques unique to photography (out-of-focus, lens filtering/coatings for dream-like effect), compositing (to augment reality), darkroom editing (cropping, dodging/burning, scratched negatives to highlight/obscure and exaggerate tonality a la chiaroscuro), and textured papers or brushed-on gelatin and gum (for a hand-crafted look). By 1870 or so, the term “Pictorialist” crept into use to define this movement.

Though not often mentioned as a Pictorialist, one of the earliest adopters of these techniques was Julia Margaret Cameron who created an astounding series of about 900 photographs from 1864 – 1876. Her images, mostly portraits, embody the aspirations of pictorialism and it is inarguable that she succeeded wildly in conveying emotion and feeling. As an example, the following is her photo of an eminent 19th century English dramatist and poet and reminds me of the Dutch Golden Age paintings in composition and tone.

Henry Taylor, 1865, by Julia Margaret Cameron

The active period of Pictorialism was from about 1880 – 1920, though photographers continued to produce such images long after that and are still doing so today (there are at least 3 Facebook groups devoted to it). The most influential and certainly most vocal proponent of it in America was Alfred Stieglitz. He advocated strongly and persistently to advance photography as art in his journals Camera Notes and Camera Work, also forming the Photo-Secession group in 1902 for that purpose. No slouch in Pictorialist techniques himself, Stieglitz produced some beautiful photos, such as this idyllic scene of some hard-working people being observed by a group of tourists(?) in the background.

At Lake Como, 1893, by Alfred Stieglitz

Stieglitz in attempting to legitimize fine art photography, eventually abandoned Pictorialism by 1915 or so in favor of straight photography and modernism. In the meantime, other photographers were producing influential fine art photographs as well.

Fred Holland Day, a Boston-based photographer, another vocal proponent of Pictorialism, and associate of Stieglitz was very active. His photos were characterized by dark tones and sometimes controversial topics and made him a primary target of critics objecting to the gloomy and fuzzy nature of Pictorialism. In the photo below, Day is clearly making a point with the dark and blurred image of the black man holding a white classical statue.

Ebony and Ivory, 1899, by F. Holland Day

(For those of you who remember the 80’s, no, Paul McCartney didn’t invent that term.)

Gertrude Käsebier was another important Pictorialist, working from 1896 – 1929, mainly from New York and a founding member of Stieglitz’s Photo-Secession. She was extraordinarily prolific – her first exhibition included 150 photographs. Many of her early works concentrated on motherhood and childhood, such as in the image below using soft-focus and beautiful lighting. She later moved to portraiture of contemporary artists and celebrities, including a remarkable series of photos of American Indians.

The Manger, 1899, by Gertrude Käsebier

Side note: though she got her start celebrating motherhood and childhood, Käsebier apparently had second thoughts about marriage. After her husband died, she is quoted as saying “If my husband has gone to Heaven, I want to go to Hell” and she published a photo with the very pointed title “Muzzled and Yoked – Marriage”.

Next month, I will follow up with some remarkable images from Pictorialists who lived in my community, Rose Valley.

Carl Finkbeiner

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