photography and various pro-impressionist groups
emerged, beginning in 1892 with the Linked Ring
Brotherhood. Earlier that year, H.P. Robinson,
along with Davison, resigned from England’s pre-
miere photographic institution, the Royal Photo-
graphic Society. As advocators of photography as a
fine art, Robinson and Davison sought to distance
their work from the scientific photography pro-
moted by the Photographic Society. Robinson then
founded the Linked Ring and invited a number of
photographers, including Alfred Stieglitz and Fre-
derick H. Evans, to become members of this exclu-
sive, new London-based organization dedicated to
the propagation of photography as a fine art. Ten
years later, building upon the model of the Linked
Ring, Stieglitz initiated the Photo-Secession in the
United States. While not all members of the Linked
Ring and Photo-Secession produced impressionist
images, they were dedicated to the establishment of
photography as a fine art and, with this in mind,
adopted a mentality that embraced the sentiment of
impressionist photography to convey an accurate,
albeit subjective, momentary perception of reality.
In the ever-present struggle to establish photography
as a legitimate art, the attitude and techniques
fostered by impressionism allowed the work of
serious photographers to stand apart from that of
both scientists and the increasing numbers of ama-
teurs infiltrating the field. Impressionism offered
photographers the freedom to work in accordance
with individual artistic aspirations and to present a
personal and emotionally charged representation of
the world.
Impressionism in photography was a relatively
short-lived movement. By 1910, a clear preference
emerged for a photography governed by its own
conventions, not modeled on the aesthetics of
painting. With the increasing acceptance of photo-
graphy as a fine art in its own right, a number of
photographers turned to purely photographic tech-
niques to create their works, leaving behind the
conscious emulation of impressionist painting.Peter Henry Emerson, Gathering Water Lilies from Life and Landscape on the Norfolk
Broads, 1886, Platinotype, 7^7 = 8 117 = 1600 , Gift of William A. Grigsby.
[Digital Image#The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA/Art Resource, New York]
IMPRESSIONISM