Pictorialism.

 I've mentioned in the two previous articles a style of Photography called Pictorialism and i thought now would be a good time for a little more explanation on what it actually was and how this style looks. By the second half of the 19th century the camera had been around for a while and people had become accustomed to its use but the novelty value was beginning to wear thin mainly because people began to question whether what it captured was too accurate and detail (to use today this sounds a little crazy but at the time you have to understand how people would react to this new technology) add this to the fact that in the art world Paintings enjoyed a much higher statues and appeal to the public and you begin to see why photographers of the period began to experiment with processes that could make there work look more like a painting then a photography. So the Pictorial style was born, the aim being to produce photos that put the finish article first and the subject second. To make there photos look more like a painting photographers employed a number of different processes soft focus (as with the two photos see here), special filters and lens coatings, heavy manipulation such as layering exposures together and even some very exotic printing processes using different papers and chemicals, unfortunately for these photographers by around 1914 this kind of work was in  rapid decline and as I've already talk about how modernism was on the climb meaning the end was in sight. Today you could maybe say that this kind of work has had a renaissance of sorts because with the introduction of digital photography and photoshop software again alot of image manipulation is common place but this discussion is probably best left for another day.

Both images taken from Wikimedia.