The Role of Subject and Symbol in American Pictorialism

Pictorial photographers formed groups in both Europe and America
at the end of the 19th century in an effort to divorce
themselves from the sharp-focus realism associated with the
medium in previous decades. The American pictorialists appeared
a decade after the European pictorialists and, as the present
study indicates, these Americans sought to equal, if not to
better, the aesthetic accomplishments of the Europeans through
their use of evocative subject matter. Recent literature has
addressed the symbolist tendencies in the work of the Americans
but has largely overlooked the specific types of imagery which
permeate their works; in general, art historians have not
sufficiently probed the role of these symbolist overtones. The
present investigation explores the photographs of the American
pictorialists Steichen, Holland Day, Käsebier, Langdon Coburn
and Clarence White, by examining their use of two particular
types of imagery: the portrait, and the figure in nature, as
well as their fascination with a specific symbol, the orb. These
pictorialist images are placed in a broader context through
their connections with the works and theories of the symbolist
artists and writers. The possible influences on the works of the
photographers are discussed, as well as the specific meanings
these images have for the pictorial movement as a whole.
(Authors intro).


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