Pictorialism

Pictorialism 

Pictorialism is a reference to a style of photography that was introduced during the late 19th and early 20th century it demonstrates an ornamental movement that gives an almost painted soft look that is commonly illustrated through portraits of wealthy or famous people during the reign of Queen Victoria. 

The technique normally causes a ghostly subject as the exposures were extremely long with a sepia tone which now is not a very common effect photographers use. 

Although many photographers used this style with landscape and street photography as it gives a chilling misty result outdoors. 

This image taken by photographer George Seeley titled ‘Brass Bowl’ in 1907 is a very good example of the style of pictorialism as you can see it gives a ghostly essence to the photograph. 

The image shows a young woman wearing some type of head piece looking into a brass container, she could be inhaling some sort of incense or medicine as she looks very drained especially how pale her skin . As the image is so soft it is difficult to decipher her surroundings. I have found it difficult to understand the technical aspects of this photograph as the piece is rather flat, although I can see that Seeley has used a light on the bottom right of the image because there is hardly any shadows visible on the woman’s face and their is a bold reflection against the object she is holding and the metal in her head piece.