The Photo-Secession and Pictorialists

Seminar 3: An overview...

The Pictorial movement (1885 – 1915) was a particular style of photography thought to have been influenced by Impressionism and artists prevalent 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 and as more akin to chemistry than art. In an attempt to elevate it to an art form photographers began to draw upon painters for inspiration. They began to consider how photographs could evoke the same emotion on a viewer as paintings. Below is an example of a gum bichromate print by French pictorialist Robert Demachy (1859 - 1936). 

Robert Demachy. Une Balleteuse, 1900

Just as artists could manipulate their paintings, photographers could also manipulate their art form by controlling the effects of the final outcome with such things as soft focus lenses, by diffusing an image and using a variety of processes including platinum prints which had a very rich tonal quality, photogravure and gum bichromate.  An Arabic gum solution and bichromate (also known as dichromates) were used to produce gum prints. The light sensitive qualities of dichromates were said to have been discovered in 1839 by Mungo Ponton, a Scottsman from Edinburgh who unlike Fox Talbot didn’t patent his invention. A negative was placed between glass with the sensitised paper (paper washed with Arabic gum, watercolour pigment and a dichromate) and exposed to light. The gum hardened over the areas exposed to the most light and the presence of the pigment created shadows. 

Water was used to wash away the remaining pigment and dichromate leaving an image that was more even in tone with less contrast. While still wet, shadow areas could be manipulated with a soft watercolour paint brush or water spray for different painterly effects. The results varied and similar to that of a painting, no two images would be the same. This method focused on the process rather than the image capture much in the same way as the labour intensity of a painting. The process could also be repeated or layered to alter the results. The image below of The Flatiron, 1904, by Edward Steichen (1879 - 1973) is an example of a layered print - gum bichromate over a platinum print. 

Julia Margaret Cameron. The Nymph Sweet Liberty 1866

While on the brink of a new era, a new century and looking toward the future with all its technical advancements there was also a sense of looking back, of trepidation and a yearning to return to nature and all things organic. As industrialisation took hold, people wanted to cling on to something familiar. The Pre-Raphaelites had strong religious and Shakespearean connotations in their works. Shakespeare drew on Greek myths and morality, both of which contributed to the basis of Victorian beliefs. The Victorians began to set up theatre in their own homes and acting out Shakespearean plays became a regular pastime. Medieval times and romance were also part of revisiting these eras and themes contained within Pre-Raphaelite works. The portrayal of innocence, nature and mythology is thought to have been reflected in Julia Margaret Cameron’s image (and in it's title), The Nymph Sweet Liberty, 1866 in which she used a worker at her residence in the Isle of Wight as her sitter.

Many of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood had close links with the Arts and Crafts Movement (c. 1860 - 1910) - a further rejection of industrialisation, machines and mass production, in favour of skilled craftsmanship and raw materials, echoing gothic and romantic design.

In 1869, Henry Peach Robinson, (referenced in the last seminar notes for his photograph Fading Away, 1858), wrote a book on the relationship between photography and art. He suggested that by the act of producing images made up of different negatives (said to be 5 separate negatives in the case of Fading Away), he had affected art in the form of photography. He championed photography as an art form and suggested that photographers were governed by the same laws as painters thus equal status should be given. 

Peter Henry Emerson. Gathering Water-lilies, 1886

Peter Henry Emerson was interested in the different qualities of light. As with Impressionist painters who also paid particular attention to light. In his most famous piece, Gathering Water-Lilies, 1886 depicting a romantic notion of life on the Norfolk Broads, (thought to be controversial due to the inaccurate portrayal of life there at the time), he shot at different times of the day to capture both the early morning and dusk light. He didn’t intend for the images to be too sharp or too soft, but just as the eye would see them, in his words, ‘naturalistic’. 

French artists Claude Monet (1840 - 1926), works are thought to have been influenced by photography. As well as the impact of light in a composition, Impressionists were concerned with capturing a moment in time. The quick brush strokes, layering, lack of hard lines all gave an 'impression' of a fleeting moment, of movement. Just as a camera would freeze frame a moment in time. Many of Monet's compositions suggest movement - lilies floating on water (many include water), a hill to ascend or descend, a person in motion, a skirt, a blade of grass, a parasol moved by the wind.

Renoir. Luncheon of the Boating Party, 1880 - 81

Renoir, said to be a close friend of Monet's, in his painting Luncheon of the Boating Party, (1880 - 81) captures a new concept of middle classes - the work/pleasure balance depicting movement by showing subjects only partially in frame. This deliberate  cut off point gives the impression of a photograph. Attention is not drawn to the centre of the composition but on what is happening all around, particularly where someone is partially out of the scene.

Returning to nature and medieval times was expressed not only through photography, and the arts but also in architecture. There was a gothic revival both in the UK and Europe. In the early 20th century, Gaudi’s creations began to take shape across Spain, mostly in Barcelona. Gaudi himself had a love of nature and the natural elements of the world around him and was devoted to the Catholic religion. His architectural practice echoed his spiritual beliefs and followed more of a natural process too. It is said he rarely drew plans in the initial stages for any of his buildings, preferring instead to make models and let the building evolve once construction began. Believed in part to have contributed to the complications with Sagrada Familia, still now in construction, 129 years on and 86 years since Gaudi’s death in 1926.

Frederick Evans. Wells Cathedral: Stairs to the Chapter House, 1903

Frederick Evans was a major contributor to pictorial photography on the subject of architecture. He looked at the way natural light fell on the natural elements of the building. He used mostly platinum prints.

Developments at the end of the 19th century in the USA were coming on in leaps and bounds. Having first patented a machine that could mass produce dry gelatin plates George Eastman set out "to make the camera as convenient as the pencil". In 1888 the first Kodak camera was made available on the market for amateur photography. For the first time everyday people could document and record their own lives. By this time photography was a widely accepted practice worldwide. In 1900 the Box Brownie was introduced. 

In 1897 a group called the Secessionists was founded in Vienna by a number of artists,  and presided over by one of its founding members, Gustav Klimt. 'Secession' is a latin word meaning to disassociate from an organisation or a 'political divorce'. The Secessionists principles were just that, they wanted to deviate from what was considered within the normal confines of art and open the definition up to art and crafts and new forms of art. This could be seen as fighting old regimes and establishments in Western Europe but pivotal to their vision for this Art Nouveau that began to break through in the form of young new artists coming to the fore, was nature and the organic.

The Photo-Secession evolved in the early 20th century (c. 1902) out pictorial photographers aspirations to firmly establish photographers as serious art contenders. It was also as the name would suggest, influenced by the (Munich) Secessionists. A members only society for like minded photographers was headed up by Alfred Stieglitz, born in Austria but having lived in the USA from an early age. Stieglitz initially formed the group to give credibility to an exhibition of contemporary American photographers, he had been asked to organise.

Following the invention of Edison's light bulb in 1880, electricity followed shortly after, illuminating cities at night enabling night time photography. Other technological steps forward facilitated photographic opportunities, including the invention of the motor car in the 1890's and flight by the Wright brothers in 1903. 

Edward Steichen. The Flatiron, 1904