Fine Art Photography Historicals: Pictorialism vs. Modernism

This post is inspired by a slide that Maria Harper uses in her class Photographic Art History at Langara College. These images, both taken by Alfred Stieglitz, clearly show Stieglitz's transition from Pictorialism into Modernism.
Compare the atmospheric qualities of From the Back Window from 1915 with and the bold geometric shapes of Looking Northwest from the Shelton from 1932.

From the Back Window, 291, 1915

The way the eye is drawn into this image through the use of depth and a foreground path-like element contrasts nicely with the second image's unyielding two-dimensionality.

Looking Northwest from the Shelton, 1932



Looking Northwest from the Shelton seems to trap the eye within the frame using the oppressive lines of 30's era skyscrapers. The lack of a foreground path into the image minimizes what little depth is in the photograph and references the medium by drawing attention to it's inability to show true depth.
It's important to note that Pictorialism as a style became outmoded around 1915 and so From the back Window, 291 does have some very modernist aspects.

Robert Adams at the VAG

I went to see a Robert Adams retrospective yesterday at the Vancouver Art Gallery (wiki page here). Although Robert Adams is a bit of a heavyweight amongst the new landscape photographers of the 70's, I was unfamiliar with his work before last night. After viewing the first two series of photographs I realized that this was the work of a master of the medium. I've never seen such an experimental yet successful use of exposure, and it blew me away how at times he had no middle grey in his prints, his skies all dazzling highlights and the shadows inky dark, but both still rich in texture and detail. Each series contained from 5 - 15 photographs and in each I found photographs that brought me to a climax of artistic wonder and inspiration. The photographs were so good that by the time I was 1/3 of the way through the extensive (200+ photographs) I couldn't go on anymore. The best way to describe it (however also decidedly low-brow)was that I blew my load early and after was too overwhelmed to enjoy the rest of the work, and so me and my gallery partner walked upstairs to see an installation by Song Dong, which acted as a perfect pallet cleanse for the night. Both shows so good that I will be back next week to pick up where I left off.


Robert Adams (Unsure of title, most likely something like "Looking East From Ridge, Bewton Colorado, 1973)


Song Dong - Waste Not Want Not