Open your eyes
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| | Landscape theme: Straight vs. Pictorialist - Checklist |
Contextual notes:
By examining these four photographs we can clearly see how styles have changed over time in response to fashion and technological changes.
- The 1873 albumen silver print by Timothy H. O'Sullivan is about clarity and showing all possible detail, he was accompanying a scientific survey team in the American West and although the choice of camera position and time of day could be selected for artistic purpose the primary aim is to record as accurately as possible what was seen.
- If the photograph by Timothy H. O'Sullivan was taken for scientific effect the bromoil print by the French photographer Emile Joachim Constant Puyo was taken for an artistic purpose. It shows a landscape with a solitary woman in misty hues on the banks of the Seine. The choice of the bromoil process, so beloved by pictorialists, softens the focus so the overall effect is one of a nineteenth century salon oil painting.
- By the 1920s the accepted practice of rendering the landscape as a painting was being challenged as modernism was superseding impressionism and becoming the dominant trend in the arts. With the clarity of the 1942 silver gelatin print by Ansel Adams the mood of the shot is captured in a way that Timothy H. O'Sullivan did not strive for but Adams also gets all the detail. This is not about resembling a painting but creating awe by showing the grandeur of nature.
- Towards the end of the twentieth century there are photographers who strive for the tonalities of Ansel Adams but the Fine Art market has moved on and now we have what I term "The New Pictorialism" with high quality printing of long exposure shots that are delving deeper into the emotions of a location. No person walks in the dream landscapes of these worlds. Michael Kenna is a master of this style.
When looking at photographs keep in mind the technologies that were available and the artistic trends that were taking place when the photograph was created. Photographs reflect the mental frameworks of the time they were taken and they go in and out of fashion just as much as clothes. |
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