34
The last decade of the century saw renewed and
heightened discussion around the question of aesthet-
ics and art photography. This preoccupation caused a
strain among classes of amateurs. Those who considered
themselves more serious photographers felt compelled
to distinguish themselves from the legions of snapshoot-
ers that used a simple Kodak camera to photograph
trips, special occasions, and family and friends; they
also differentiated their practice from professionals,
whose reputation for quality had fallen in recent years.
Another, very visible group of amateurs aspired to make
more aesthetic photographs, and separated themselves
from those more interested in making technically good,
but fairly conventional photographs from the standpoint
of composition and choice of subject matter. Artistic
matters became central to their practice and they took
on critical issues of traditional aesthetics and followed
certain principles of painting and printmaking. The pho-
tographic press also joined the discussion, and journals
like the American Amateur Photographer advocated
taking more time with the artistic side of photography
and encouraged their readers to “elevate” their art.
The photographs created are variously labeled artistic,
expressionistic, or pictorial, the latter term now used to
distinguish this particular type of artistic photograph
created during the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries.
The 1890s saw fervent debate over what constituted
a pictorial photograph, and whether personal expression
and artistry should be emphasized over the cameras
ability to record precise detail. Peter Henry Emerson’s
1889 book Naturalistic Photography for Students of
the Art, emphasized selective focusing, which more
naturally imitated human vision, with impressionistic
compositions that showed an idealized nature. Another
group, identifying with the work of H.P. Robinson,
emphasized the artistic possibilities of photography
through combination printing, traditional principles of
composition, and subject matter borrowed from paint-
ing. Photographers experimented with old and new
printing methods, and processes like gum bichromate
and platinotype gained in popularity. Watercolor and
other textured papers were used, and negatives and prints
were manipulated by hand, allowing for more variation
as well as more painterly effects.
Exhibitions and salons continued, many sponsored
by the camera clubs and associations. They took on
added importance as artistic debates intensify. Splinter
groups, devoted to the aesthetics of photography formed
in major European cities. The fi rst Photo-Club de Paris
formed in 1889. In England photographers protest the
lax aesthetic standards of the Photographic Society of
Great Britain salon and in 1892 formed their own invita-
tional group, The Brotherhood of the Linked Ring. The
International Ausstellung Kunstlerische Photographie,
organized by the Club der Amateur Photographen in
Vienna in 1891, is considered fi rst international photo-
graphic exhibition limited only to artistic photography.
Subsequent art photography exhibitions were sponsored
by The Photo Club de Paris, The Linked Ring in England
and the Camera Club of New York, which was founded
in 1897. In 1898 the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine
Arts hosted a joint salon with the Photographic Society
of Philadelphia with a selection committee consisting
of painters and photographers, including Alfred Stieg-
litz, leader of the fi ne art photography movement in
the United States. The jury chose only works showing
“artistic feeling and sentiment,” and the exhibition was
a popular success. With these exhibitions and formation
of aesthetic groups, an international circle of amateur
photographers formed the fi rst international fi ne art
photography avant-garde movement. They sought to
identify more with the contemporary art world, fi nding
inspiration in Art Nouveau, Symbolism, Impressionism,
and contemporary literature: their ultimate dream to
raise the stature of photography to the level of fi ne art
—an equal to painting and sculpture.
Amateur photographers, the groups they formed, the
publications they fostered, and their contribution to sci-
entifi c and artistic developments made them the leaders
of 19th century photography. In fact, the history of 19th
century photography is largely the history of amateur
activity. From Talbot and Daguerre to Alfred Stieglitz,
many of the most important fi gures came to photography
because they loved the medium; and their devotion can
be seen in the many hours they spent experimenting,
tinkering, inventing, theorizing, writing, exhibiting,
developing, printing, and of course, photographing.
Becky SimmonsSee also: Daguerre, Louis-Jacques-Mandé; Talbot,
William Henry Fox; Daguerreotype; Calotype and
Talbotype; Morse, Samuel Finley Breese; Herschel,
Sir John Frederick William; Wheatstone, Charles;
Becquerel, Edmond Alexandre; Rigby, Lady
Elizabeth Eastlake; Delacroix, Ferdinand Victor
Eugène; Diamond, Hugh Welch; Fenton, Roger;
Cameron, Julia Margaret; Nègre, Charles; Le Secq,
Henri; Maddox, Richard Leach; Eastman, George;
Kodak; Ward, Catherine Weed Barnes; Ward, Henry
Snowden; Emerson, Peter Henry; Robinson; Photo-
Club de Paris; Brotherhood of the Linked Ring; and
Stieglitz, Alfred.Further Reading
Buerger, Janet. The Last Decade: The Emergence of Art Photog-
raphy in the 1890’s. Rochester, N.Y.: International Museum
of Photography at George Eastman House, 1984.
Coe, Brian. The Snapshot Photograph: The Rise of Popular Pho-
tography, 1888–1939. London: Ash and Grant, 1977.