Light and Magic: The Birth of Art Photography

Discover how pictorialism, the first international art photography movement, developed across the world from the 1880s to the 1960s.

Discover the early experiments of photography as fine art, and the incredible work produced by those who championed its artistic potential over its scientific function as a documentary tool. At the heart of this is Pictorialism, a global photographic movement that began in Europe in the 1890s. While a photograph is of course always pictorial, the term ‘pictorialism’ aimed to capture the expressive possibilities of photography and the excitement of inventing a new art form, claiming a connection with painting.

Moving beyond traditional photographic histories centred around Europe and North America, this landmark publication broadens both the geographical and chronological understanding of Pictorialism, tracing the movement’s evolution through to the 1960s. It brings together images by eighty artists working across Europe, North and South America, Asia and Australia, revealing a remarkable diversity of styles, subjects and techniques that defined the movement across different cultural and geographical contexts. Also featured is a photographic timeline, which explains in detail many of the different printing processes used by the featured artists.

This is a book for photography lovers, readers with an interest in Pictorialism and early modernism, and fans of beautiful photography publications. It is also a slice of social and cultural history, revealing the extraordinary beauty, ambition and international reach of Pictorialism while offering a bold new history of photography.

Featured artists include Adolph de Meyer, Clarence H. White, Ho Fan, Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Weston, Lionel Wendt, and Edward Steichen, alongside Wu Peng Seng, Long Chin-san, Luo Bonian, and Shapoor N. Bhedwar.

About the Author

Charmaine Toh is Senior Curator, International Art, at Tate Modern.