The approach
to photography as a substitute for the visual arts was challenged by the
English amateur photographer Peter Henry Emerson (1856-1936), who urged
photographers to turn directly to nature for inspiration and to limit their
manipulation of inherent photographic processes. His book Naturalistic
Photography for Students of the Art (1889) was based on his belief
that photography is an art in itself, independent of painting. Later, he
modified this statement, theorizing that mere reproduction of nature is
not art. Emerson's other writings-distinguishing art photography from photographs
produced for nonaesthetic purposes, and discussing the arrangement of photographic
exhibitions-further defined the art aspect of photography.
As a judge of
an amateur photographic competition in 1887, Emerson awarded a prize to
Alfred Stieglitz, an American photographer then studying abroad, whose
work exemplified Emerson's own views. Stieglitz returned to the U.S. in
1890 and made a series of straightforward pictures of New York City in
different seasons and weather conditions. In 1902 he founded the Photo-Secession
movement, which championed photography as an independent art form. Members
of the group included Gertrude Käsebier (1852-1934), Edward Steichen,
Clarence White (1871-1925), and many others. Their official publication
was the superbly produced Camera Work (1903-17). After the Photo-Secessionists
disbanded, Stieglitz continued to foster new talent by exhibitions at his
gallery, 291-at 291 Fifth Ave. in New York City. Among those whose works
were shown there were the American photographers Paul Strand, Edward Weston,
Ansel Easton Adams, and Imogen Cunningham.
Before World
War I, Stieglitz, Steichen, and Strand had used soft focus and printed
their photographs on paper with a special texture, in order to produce
impressionistic images reminiscent both of Japanese prints and the atmospheric
paintings of the American artist J. A. M. Whistler. In the 1920s, however,
they turned to capturing minute details and abstracting natural forms,
with precision and deep emotional effect; Steichen, in particular, turned
to portraiture. They wanted, as Strand wrote, to free "the photograph
from the domination of painting."
Some of Strand's
work was published by Stieglitz in the last two issues of Camera Work;
they represent a break with the traditional subject matter of art photography
and a move toward recognizing the aesthetic merits of the intrinsic vision
of the camera.
