Review for Exam #2 (Ch. 9–14)

Comprehensive vocabulary review flashcards for Exam #2 covering Chapters 9 through 14 of the History of Photography, focusing on Pictorialism, Modernism, the New Vision, Surrealism, Straight Photography, Social Documentary, and Photojournalism.

Peter Henry Emerson

1886 London lecture 'Photography, a Pictorial Art,'

He wants to embrace naturalism and reject staged photos

argued that enduring art is made from nature.

emphasized soft, selective, and central focus

established an aesthetic philosophy modeled on human vision

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Life and Landscape on the Norfolk Broads (1885–86), Peter Henry Emerson

photographic folio that showed his naturalistic principles of photography.

The Platinum Process

developed in late 19th-century

resistant to fading

wide range of soft grays with delicate tonal gradations

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Suffolk Dyke (1887), PH Emerson

Pictorialism

movement where they sought to establish photography as a fine art

emphasized mood, atmosphere, emotion, and personal expression

pictorialists

beauty > fact

sensitive and intuitive images

formed clubs like the linked ring, photo-secession, photo-club-de-paris, vienna camera club

Frederick H. Evans

pure photography with no retouching

medieval cathedreals

platinum printer

helped elevate photography to fine art

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A Sea of Steps, Frederick Evans

Photogravure

turns a photo into an ink print

photo —> metal plate —> ink —> printed photophograph

Gum Bichromate

image is created directly on paper using light sensitive chemical sand pigment

negative+pigment+gum+light —> wash —> photographic image

photogravure vs gum bichromate

metal plate [photograuve] VS paper/support [gum bichromate]

ink vs pigment

printmaking vs photographic printmaking

Alfred Stieglitz

american photographer who championed photography as a legitimate modern fine art

founded the Photo-Secession in 1902

opened the 291 Gallery

published the journal Camera Work

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The Terminal 1892, Alfred Stieglitz

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Winter, 5th Avenue Alfred Stieglitz

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Spring Showers Alfred Stieglitz

Edward Steichen

co-founder of the Photo-Secession

bridged Pictorialism and Modernism

Director of Photography at MoMA

curated the 1955 exhibition 'The Family of Man.'

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The Flatiron 1904 Edward Steichen

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Moonrise, Mamaroneck, New York (1904) Edward Steichen

Clarence White

a founding member of the Photo-Secession

known for soft-focus, atmospheric, emotionally resonant images

established the Clarence H. White School of Photography (1914–1942), training figures like Dorothea Lange.

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Reflected Nude Clarence White

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The Bubble Clarence White

F. Holland Day

key pictorialist photographer

used religious themes

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Crucifixion F. Hollander Day

Gertrude Käsebier

a prominent woman portrait photographer

member of photo-secession movement

noted for her emotionally sensitive portrayals of mothers and children

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Blessed Art Thou Among Women Gertrude Käsebier

Anne Brigman

Photo-Secession member

known for allegorical images of women in natural landscapes

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The Cleft of Rock Anne Brigman

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The Big Cedar 1909 Anne Brigman

Cubism

early 20th-century art movement (1907–1914) pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque

rejected single-point perspective

didn’t should things looked but instead how we know and experience them

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Nude Descending a Staircase #2, 1912 Marcel Duchamp

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Marey's Sequential Photographs

Futurism

Italian avant-garde movement founded in 1909 by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti

celebrating speed, technology, machines, and dynamic motion while rejecting past traditions

used diagonal lines, repetition, and fragmentation to suggest emotion

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Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash, 1912 Giacomo Balla

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Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, 1913, Umberto Boccioni

Abstraction in Painting

style of art that uses shapes, colors, lines, and forms to achieve its effect, as opposed to accurately representing reality

meant to express ides, emotions, or concepts beyond visible appearances

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Composition VII, 1913 Vasily Kandinsky

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The Steerage, 1907 Alfred Stieglitz

Paul Strand

rejected the idea that photos had to imitate painting or traditional art

embraced geometric abstraction

published in the final issues of Camera Work.

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1915 Paul Strand

Vorticism

a style with both dynamism and a still center

ended due to WWI horrors

Alvin Langdon Coburn

blended pictorialism and modernism

created first photos known as vortographs in 1917

used high viewpoints, unusual angles, aerial perspectives, and abstraction

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The Octopus, 1912

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Vortagraph [Ezra Pound], 1917 Alvin Langdon Corburn

a term to describe abstract photographs made by positioning an arrangement of mirrors and prisms in front of the camera lens, which creates a cubist effect

Russian Suprematism

An avant-garde movement founded in 1915–1916 by Kazimir Malevich

'supremacy of pure artistic feeling,'

rejecting representation and narrative in favor of pure geometric forms like squares and circles.

Constructivism

post-revolutionary Russian art movement (c. 1919–1920)

rejected 'art for art's sake,'

art should be a utilitarian tool for collective political and social construction

Alexander Rodchenko

Russian Constructivist artist and photographer who revolutionized visual composition

used extreme worm's-eye and bird's-eye angles, diagonal framing, bold typography, and photomontage

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The Critic Osip Brik, 1924 Aleksandr Rochenko

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Fire escape With a Man, 1925

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Pioneer With A Horn, 1930

László Moholy-Nagy

Hungarian Constructivist artist and Bauhaus instructor

used aerial views, extreme close-ups, dramatic perspectives

helped develop the 'New Vision' in photography

Photogram

camera-less photo technique

subject is applied to a paper and the light exposes the shape of the subject

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Berlin Radio Tower, 1928 Laszlo Maholy-Nagy

Surrealism

movement founded in Paris in 1924 by André Breton

'psychic automatism in its pure state,'

influenced by Sigmund Freud's dream theories to unlock the irrational unconscious and challenge conventional reality.

Man Ray

American artist affiliated with Dada and Surrealism

transformed photography through camera-less Rayographs, solarization, double exposures, and surrealist compositions

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Observatory Time—The Lovers, (1936) Man Ray

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The Kiss, 1922 Man Ray

André Kertész

pioneer of street photography

moved away from traditional pictorialism, wanted to emphasize everyday life, spontaneity, and unusual perspectives

humanism

pioneer of photojournalism

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distortion no. 4, 1933 André Kertész

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Equivalent, 1925/1927 Alfred Stieglitz

Edward Weston

rejected pictorialism

emphasized formal qualities of the subject

transformed ordinary objects into almost abstract forms

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Nude, 1936 Edward Weston

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two shells, 1927 Edward Weston

Previsualization

seeing what you want the image to look like before taking the photo, so that minimal manipulation is needed, ansel adams

Group f/64

West Coast group of modernist photographers dedicated to “straight” photography.

Ansel Adams

invented the zone system, scientific approach to film exposure that allowed for previsualization of tonal information by the photographer

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A Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite, 1944 Ansel Adams

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Magasin, avenue des Gobelins, 1925 Eugène Atget

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Self-Portrait, c. 1928 Claude Cahun

New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit)

distorted and dark realism that wanted to expose the moral degradation of german society

showed unflattering detail

social documentary photography

shows people experiencing vulnerable situations

deals with man made social conditions that can be changed for the better

Jacob Riis

How the Other Half Lives book in 1890

used new magnesium flash powder

critics read the images as moralizing

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Five Cents a Spot, 1889

Lewis Hine

sociologist

went to ellis island to photograph immigrants

investigated mills, mines, canneries, and streets, often in disguise, and logged children’s accounts in detailed captions

Men at Work photographed the construction of the empire state building

J. T. Zealy

zealy daguerreotypes were ordered by louis agassiz

photos were taken to try and support polygenesis, the idea that races descended from different origins, which was opposed by darwin

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Jack, 1850s J.T. Zealy

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Hopi Girl, 1922 Edward S. Curtis

Tina Modotti

important figure in mexican modernism

became increasingly involved in left-wing politics

straight photography mixed with politics

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mexican sombrero with hammer and sickle, 1927 Tina Modotti

Harlem Renaissance

flowering of literary, visual, and musical arts within the african american community in harlem

collaborations between artists and writers, publishers, playwrights

no single style defined it

James Van Der Zee

photographed black life in harlem

guarantee photo studio was an important place for documenting harlems emerging black middle class

carefully staged and retouched his portraits

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James Van Der Zee, Couple, Harlem, 1932

Farm Security Administration (FSA)

fsa photographers were meant to show urban america in a desperate situation and enlist popular support of roosevelts new programs of grants, loans, and resettlement money to displaced farmers

Dorothea Lange

FSA photographer

emotionally compelling portraits of displaced agricultural workers, migrant laborers, and sharecroppers during the Great Depression

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Migrant Mother, 1936 Dorothea Lange

Walker Evans

worked for the fsa

restrained, detached, and seemingly objective style

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Burroughs Family Cabin, Hale County, Alabama, 1936

Gordon Parks

confronted racism, poverty, and inequality in the us

first African American staff photographer at Life magazine

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american gothic, washington, d.c., 1942

André Kertész

pioneer of 35mm photography

humanism, captured emotion and solitude

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Cyclist, Paris, 1948 André Kertész

Brassaï

from transylvania

captured parisian nightlife

paris by night book in 1933

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monastic brothel, latin quarter, 1931 brassaï

Henri Cartier-Bresson

French master of 35mm street photography

co-founder of Magnum Photos

made the idea “the decisive moment” or capturing the perfect instant when form and meaning align

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place d’europe, Henri Cartier-Bresson

Lisette Model

bold, confrontational portraits of ordinary people

used close framing and flash

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gambler, french riviera, 1937 Lisette Model

helen levitt

street photos in new york

balanced documentary realism with human warmth

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Helen Levitt

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Motorcyclist, Budapest, 1923 Martin Munkácsi

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Ronald Fisher, Beekeeper, Davis, California, May 9, 1981, printed 1985 Richard Avedon