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Pictorialism was a photographic movement in vogue from around 1885 following the widespread introduction of the dry-plate process. It reached its height in the early years of the 20th century, and declined rapidly after 1914 after the widespread emergence of Modernism.

Pictorialism largely subscribed to the idea that art photography needed to emulate the painting and etching of the time. Most of these pictures made were black & white or sepia-toned. Among the methods used were soft focus, special filters and lens coatings, heavy manipulation in the darkroom, and exotic printing processes. From 1898 rough-surface printing papers were added to the repertoire, to further break up a picture's sharpness. Some artists "etched" the surface of their prints using fine needles. The aim of such techniques was to achieve what the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica termed, in discussing Pictorialism, "personal artistic expression".

Despite the aim of artistic expression, the best of such photographs paralleled the impressionist style then current in painting. Looking back from the present day, we can also see close parallel between the composition and picturesque subject of genre paintings and the bulk of pictorialist photography.

The 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica noted that: "as a distinct movement pictorial photography is essentially of British origin", although in its later phases there was a strong influence on American photography. The Linked Ring and The New American School were notable organised U.S. tendencies in Pictorialism around 1900. An American circle of photographers later renounced pictorialism altogether and went on to found Group f/64, which espoused the ideal of unmanipulated, or straight photography.

The contemporary American portraitist Sally Mann revisited the pictorialist style in her 2003 book What Remains.

One of the most important publications that promoted Pictorialism was Alfred Stieglitz's "Camera Work" 1903 - 1917. Each publication had up to 12 plates that were reproduced in Photogravure,Halftone or Collotype. This plates are now collected and very sought after in the art world. Most of the photographers that made up the issues were "Photo - Succession" members, a group that promoted photography as art.

Alfred Stieglitz is also know as the grandfather of "Pictorialism"

Stieglitz also brought Picasso, Matisse, Rodin and other important painters at the time to the forefront of the American art scene.

• "photography, history of". Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Retrieved on 2006-07-18. 
• Daum, Patrick (Ed.) Impressionist Camera: Pictorial Photography in Europe, 1888-1918 (2006). ISBN 1-85894-331-0
• Taschen "Alfred Stieglitz Camera Work, The complete illustrations 1903 - 1917 (1997). ISBN 3-8228-8072-8
• Green, Jonathan "Camera Work: A Critical Anthology (1973). ISBN 0-912334-73-8

• In Praise of Pictorialism: Early Pictorial PhotographyA discussion on pictorial photography and 28 examples of this style.