When I was younger and just starting out in photography, I instantly fell in with the f/64 sharp focus Weston Adams paradigm and mocked the (what I saw as) pretensions of the Pictorialist movement. I'm still not a fan of the faked death scenes and other theatrical constructions but I've definitely done a rethink on landscapes softly rendered. Their soft, ethereal, glowy quality is often more in keeping with the emotion one feels at the scene than a more clinical sharp rendering can provide. All of this revelation thanks to the book "Truth Beauty: Pictorialism and the Photograph as Art, 1845 -1945". Sadly this may now be out of print, but I recommend it highly.
Anyone else have a change of appreciation after seeing this book? Comments?
I think this and the fantastic "The Photographs of Frederick H. Evans" (only $33.75 at Amazon) are two of the best books published in recent years.
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