Pictorialism, Photo-Secession, and Straight Photography were three major photographic movements between 1870-1930. Pictorialism aimed to express feelings and engage the senses through manipulated images focused on beauty rather than facts. The Photo-Secession movement was founded by Alfred Stieglitz in 1902 and sought to elevate photography to an art form while respecting its mechanical origins. Straight Photography emphasized photography's technical capabilities to sharply depict scenes in focus and detail without manipulation. Major figures included Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, and Imogen Cunningham who were part of the f/64 group that further developed Straight Photography.

1. Pictorialism, Photo-Secession
& Straight Photography
1870-1930

2. “Art is not so much a matter of methods and
processes as it is an affair of temperament,
of taste and of sentiment... In the hands of
the artist, the photograph becomes a work
of art... In a word, photography is what the
photographer makes it - an art or a trade.”
(William Howe Downes, 1900. A World History of Photography, Naomi Rosenblum, 1997)

3. The invention of the camera meant that artists no longer had to depict the world in a realistic
way. The Impressionists focused more on capturing the changing qualities of light and
atmosphere. In 1874, French Impressionists hold first group exhibition.
Monet
‘Impression Sunrise’,
1872
Impressionism

4. Alfred Stieglitz
‘Waiting for the return’
1895
Pictorialism
Pictorialists hoped to express and engage feelings and senses and felt that their images should
be concerned with beauty rather than fact.

5. Edward Steichen
Right:
Edward Steichen
‘Woods Interior’, 1898

7. Photo Secession
• The photography ‘movement’
begins in New York
• 1903- ‘Camera Work’ : an art /
photography journal, is founded
in the U.S
• 1905- Steiglitz opens ‘Little
Galleries of the Photo-Secession’
in New York.
Right:
Alvin Langdon
Coburn
‘The Thames’, 1904
The movement was founded by
Stieglitz in 1902. It had the ideals
of Pictorialism but the concerned
photographers also wanted the
mechanical origins to be
apparent.

8. Alvin Coburn
Right:
Alvin Langdon
Coburn
‘The Octopus’,
1912

9. Alfred Stieglitz
Above: Alfred Stieglitz ‘The Steerage’,

10. The End of
Secessionism
Right:
Paul Strand
‘Blind Woman, New York’, 1907
World War I ended the pre-war
leisurely life many had enjoyed.
Steiglitz felt the work was lacking
creativity and ‘Camera Works’
began including less and less
‘artistic’ photography replacing it
with more candid images by
photographers such as Paul Strand.
CLIP

11. Straight Photography
Straight photography emphasizes and engages with the camera's own technical capability to
produce images sharp in focus and rich in detail. The term generally refers to photographs that
are not manipulated, either in the taking of the image or by darkroom or digital processes, but
sharply depict the scene or subject as the camera sees it.
Straight photography for the first time, since the invention of photography, respects the
medium's own technical visual language. The camera's distinctive vocabulary includes form,
sharp focus, rich detail, high contrast, and rich tonalities. Straight photography is also
synonymous with pure photography, since both terms describe the camera's ability to faithfully
reproduce an image of reality.

13. Edward Weston
‘Shell’
1927
f64

15. Edward Weston
‘Pepper’, 1930
Edward Weston
‘Nude’, 1936

16. Imogen Cunningham
‘Two Callas’
1929
Imogen Cunningham
‘The Unmade Bed’
1958

17. Ansel Adams
‘Frozen lakes and cliffs, Sierra, Nevada’,
1932
Ansel Adams
‘Grand Teton National Park, Snake
River Overlook’ 1929

18. Homework Task
Explain the intentions, key players and context of the four
Photographic Movements:
Pictorialism
Photo Secession
Straight Photography
F64
Please make sure that you illustrate your description with
images by the photographers as well as images of the
photographers.