Modernism

Modernism is a photographic genre that along with cultural trends and changes, started in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It occurred when technology had improved throughout the interwar period and more people became involved in Art and Media. 

The Mantra of Modernism which basically means that a photograph should look like a photograph instead of a pictorial style image. 

Pure and Straight photography began when a group of american photographers including Willard Van Dyke and Ansel Adams founded a society called f.64. Active in San Francisco bay area around 1930 to 1935, the founders took its name from one of the smallest aperture stops available on a large format camera which gives an image a lot of clarity and depth of field which was not a common technique at that time as pictorialism was still a major style of photography.   

This Image taken by f.64 photographer Ansel Adams was shot in 1925 at Kings Canyon National Park, 

During the 1930s Adams was experimenting with sequences and what he called “extracts”, that is, showing small, isolated details of life & death, growth & decay, but not a true abstract.  Around this time he also started adopting the Modernist aesthetic with the other members from f.64. He would also photograph the same scene from different viewpoints and in different light.  This is a technique he may well have adopted from painters such as Monet, as he increasingly photographed the light rather than the scenery.

In this image you can see a landscape shot of the Canyon, I really like the refections of the trees agains the water and the strong clarity from the captivating horizon.