Photographic Movements

Pictorial Photographers were influenced by art movements of the time and sought for photography to be considered as valuable as fine paintings. They were influenced by art movements such as Romanticism, pre-Raphealites and Symbolists. They rendered subjects out of focus to be more like artists than technicians (Henry Peach Robinson, Pictorial Effect in Photography, 1869). Influential photographer, Julia Margaret Cameron, used soft focus and mysterious lighting to depict themes from the bible.

Julia Margaret Cameron, Kiss of Peace, 1891

From the inception of the camera, the focus of photography was to develop techniques and processes that would produce sharp images that were taken directly from nature and not manipulated. The idea is to strive toward the most faithful rendition of what’s in front of the lens.

Peter Henry Emerson, Gathering Waterlilies, 1885 

Alfred Steiglitz formed a group for an exhibition of contemporary American Photographers. This movement, interwoven with pictorialism, was underpinned by the idea that what was significant about a photograph was not what was in front of the camera but the manipulation of the image by the artist/photographer to achieve his or her subjective vision. Steiglitz desired to secede from the accepted idea of what constitutes a photograph.

Edward Steichen, The Flatiron, 1902-1910

Modernism responded to rapid changes in technology and society at the beginning of the 20th century. Industrialisation, cars and aeroplanes radically changed individuals and art. Readily available 35mm cameras led many photographers to capture the experience of modernity. The camera was celebrated as a mechanical tool as technology became a hope for the future post WWI. In the art world, impressionism and post-impressionism moved to cubism and futurism which lead photographers to seek out abstract compositions of every day objects.

Laszlo Moholy-Naggy, An Outline of the Universe, 1930

After WWI, horror and violence shifted social perceptions of sanity and reality. Rejecting rational ways of perceiving the world, artists and writers looked to dreams and imagination for inspiration. In 1924,  André Breton, who published the first Surrealist Manifesto to explain surrealist principles. These presented photographers an interesting challenge as they couldn't paint straight from their minds but used real world photographs to depict dreamlike ideas. Photographers began combining images using photomontage, solarisation and photograms.

Man Ray, Lampshade, 1920

In the late 190s and early 1930s there was great social and economic unrest in the US because of the Great Depression. While people sought respite from hardship, the American West was seen as the base for future economic recovery because of large public works projects like the Hoover Dam. News and images of the West represented a land of hope. A group of San Francisco Bay Area photographers developed Group f.64 who captured Western environments with sharply focussed, carefully framed and precisely exposed images. They promoted a modernism over pictorialism.

Ansel Adams, Yosemite trees with snow on branches, 1933

As portable cameras became more available, photojournalism and "street photography" became widespread. With pictures of war being published by new outlets, photographers aimed to convey life and times candidly, without leading the story. Henri Cartier-Bresson coined “the decisive moment," suggesting a split-second snap could reveal larger truths. Photojournalism differs from documentary photography through its need to remain impartial.

Henri Cartier-Bresson, Gare St Lazare, 1932

Pop art emerged in America and Britain, drawing inspiration from popular culture. This movement began as a revolt against traditional views on what art should be. Young artists find that school art theory did not reflect their real world. They reflected on Hollywood, advertising, packaging, pop music, fashion and comic books. Pop artist Richard Hamilton described it as transient, expendable, low cost, mass produced young, witty, sexy, glamorous big business. Important figures in thove movement include Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Robert Rauschenberg. Art critics now describe this as the beginning of post-modernism.

Andy Warhol, Sage Blue Marilyn, 1964

Conceptual photography coincided with explorations in to video art from the 1960s onwards. This photography was less about the photograph and more about the idea conveyed. The style includes staged concepts, using actors and props such as those seen in advertising and more recently, used for creative profile pictures on social media. Technology such as Photoshop has provided the opportunity to create all kinds of edited images that are not required to be direct representations of what was in front of the lens.

David LaChapelle, Glow Up (Lizzo), 2020