Photography

In the late 19th century, some photographers worked to advance photography into the realm of fine art by taking an aesthetic approach to the medium. The movement, known as pictorialism, emphasised photography’s artistic, evocative and interpretive qualities rather than its documentary ones.

Reacting to the widespread commercial and domestic uses of photography for recording people, events and places, pictorialist photographers sought to evoke emotional sensations and states of mind. They depicted commonplace scenes in ways that suggested psychological and spiritual meanings.

By focusing on the patterning of light and shade, blurring detail and compressing space, the pictorialists reinforced photography’s status as an art alongside painting and drawing. Photographers such as George Davison, Mathilde Weil and Alfred Stieglitz and Clarence H White embraced a variety of artistic influences, including Symbolist literature and art, Impressionist and Pre-Raphaelite painting, art nouveau and Japonisme. They employed new technologies and printing processes to create painterly, tonal qualities. Soft-focus lenses were used to produce atmospheric effects; platinum printing allowed delicate tones to be created on matte, textured papers; and gum and carbon bichromate and bromoil were used to manipulate the negative, allowing detail and tone to be adjusted.

The movement reached a peak of activity between 1890 and 1930 and included artists working in the USA, Europe, Asia and Australia. In Australia, artists including Harold Cazneaux, Olive Cotton and Cecil Bostock took pictures of everyday spaces, figures and objects, but simplified form, played with light and shade, and explored surface effects to elicit feelings, memories and ideas.

Describe the mood of each image listed here. How has the artist made you think or feel a certain way? What elements in each work provoke your response? Consider the use of light and shade as well as the subject matter, titles and composition.

Choose an artwork listed here. Describe the lines, shapes, textures, focus and tones. What makes this photograph 'pictorial’?

Use a digital camera to photograph different textures in the landscape around you. Record these textures and patterns. Experiment with the placement of the horizon line, sky and land. Create a collage that reflects your experience of this place.

Experiment with natural and artificial light as well as taking images at different times of the day. How does light create an emotive quality in your work? Create a photograph that evokes a certain emotion. Consider artists listed here as inspiration for your work.