Shadows of a Fleeting World: Pictorial Photography and the Seattle Camera Club

The Seattle Camera Club (SCC), specializing in pictorialism, or the use of photography as a fine arts medium, was the first internationally known artists group from Washington state. The group was formed in 1924 by thirty-nine Issei, first generation Japanese immigrants, with headquarters in Seattle’s International District.  At its height in the late 1920’s, SCC members represented some of the most exhibited pictorialist photographers in the world. The organization formally dissolved in 1930 due to economic pressures of the Great Depression. In the 1940’s, the forced incarceration of Japanese Americans disrupted the lives of Issei SCC members and led to the loss of much of their artwork.  

The rare collection on display at Cascadia Art Museum this summer includes nearly seventy original photographs by SCC photographers, many on public display for the first time in decades. The original film camera equipment c.1900 belonging to artist Myra Albert Wiggins is also on view in the exhibition.