From the "blurb":
"Much has been written about Alfred Stieglitz's group of photographers, the Photo-Secession, and their role in establishing photography as an art. Little attention, however, has been paid to the pictorialists who followed Stieglitz, among them William Mortensen, A. Aubrey Bodine, Adolf Fassbender, and many others. These photographers embraced a host of picture styles, including traditional beauty (typified by painterly, soft-focus effects), modernism (incorporating speed and drama), and commercialism (adopting slick, professional methods). The pictorial movement was particularly widespread and popular in this country (USA), eclipsing all other forms of photographic endeavor. By mid-century, however, it was dying out, due largely to the rising popularity of both 35-mm cameras and color photography.
In this groundbreaking volume, Christian A. Peterson finally gives the pictorialists working after 1910 their due. He describes the background of the movement, the photographers' methods, the camera clubs they belonged to, the "salons" in which they exhibited, and their multifaceted work. Its ninety stunning reproductions faithfully capture the variable tones and virtuosic printmaking qualities of the originals. The book examines and illustrates the committed work of two generations of pictorialists who, until now, have been largely ignored in the history of photography."