Romantics, Pictorialists & the photo secession

Thinking Photography

Romantics, Pictorialists & the Photo Secession

As people began to consider how photographs could evoke the same emotion on a viewer as paintings.The Pictorialist movement was a particular style of photography said to have been influenced by Impressionism and artists at the time, namely the Pre-Raphaelites. It was established in response to some debate surrounding photography being seen as a means of documenting and recording. In an attempt to elevate it to an art form photographers began to draw upon painters for inspiration.  

Pre-Raphaelites:

• A group of English painters, poets & critics.

Founders:

• William Holman Hunt
• John Everett Millais
• Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Joined By:

• William Rossetti
• James Collinson
• Frederic George Stephens
• Thomas Woolner

Formed the pre-Raphaelites brotherhood, who believed that the classical poses and elegant compositions of  Raphael in particular had been a corrupting influence on the teach of art. hence the name, 'Pre-Raphaelites'.

John Everett Millais - Ophelia (1851-1852)
"There is a willow grows aslant a brook, 
    That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream; 
    There with fantastic garlands did she come 
    Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples 
    That liberal shepherds give a grosser name, 
    But our cold maids do dead men's fingers call them: 
    There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds 
    Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke; 
    When down her weedy trophies and herself 
    Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide; 
    And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up: 
    Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes; 
    As one incapable of her own distress, 
    Or like a creature native and indued 
    Unto that element: but long it could not be 
    Till that her garments, heavy with their drink, 
    Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay 
    To muddy death. " - Queen Gertrude; Act IV, Scene VII

Pre-industrial (gothic)

• Provocative
• Influenced writing and photography
• Go back to portraits being less contrived.

Julia Margaret Cameron - The Echo.

The story of Echo and Narcissus is used as a warning to those who love someone that can not love them back and is often used as a basis for understanding the implications of a condition known as Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD). It is also used in reference toBorderline Personality Disorder (BPD).

Romantic Period

• Reaction to industrial period.
• Photographs, music, poetry.

Artists of the Romantic Period:

• Alexander Keighley
• Frederick Henry Evans
• Dr. Peter Henry Emerson
• Poling on the Marsh Hay
• Claude Monet

Photography begun to develop, it was no longer a wet process.and instead of photography being inspired by painters, painters were beginning to becoming inspired by photographers. As the end of the century arrived, people were more aware of self & emotions, and that the notion of speed and time is important.

Secessionism

Art Nouvea - formed in 1897 - as the start of new art, and new artists.

Artists of the Secessionism era:

• Anteni Gaudi 
• Pierre-Auguste Renior
• Edgar Degas
• Fredrick Evans
• Alfred Stieglitz
• George Eastman
• Edward Steichen

Period of Reflectiveness, artists used photography to express themselves through the medium, as new technology was beginning to come into play.

Other important artist of the era:

- Leonard Missonne (1870-1943)

- Clarence H. White (1871-1925)

- George H. Seeley (1900-1955)

Alvin Langdon Coburn - St. Pauls Cathedral at Ludgate Circus