Soft Focus on "SHORPY" but not limited....post some excellent examples

[Jim Galli]

I'll start a thread that folks can use to re-direct us to excellent examples of 'soft focus' from history past that they run across on the 'web'. Doesn't have to be from 'shorpy' but they posted a wonderful example of Soft Focus at it's zenith, 100 years ago. This one by Arnold Genthe.


http://www.shorpy.com/files/images/SHORPY_7a13553a1.jpg (http://www.shorpy.com/node/16118?size=_original#caption)

Does not get much better than that. Didn't Genthe have a connection some how with Weston's wife Charis Wilson? The picture is the link to shorpy.

[Drew Wiley]

Around here Genthe is better known for his classic Chinatown street photography, which was definitely in a different style, not soft-focus. I ran into a bunch of his
prints cheap at a rare book show once, and should have bought some up, but you know... had too many prints to store already. It would be interested to see some
typical examples of EW's own portrait studio work (which he detested), since he was himself a master of semi-soft pictorialism, despite his dialectic condemnation of
it in later f64 manifestos.

[Jim Galli]

Weston's earliest soft focus work (1917 - ish) is mesmerizing. Just beautiful. He definitely had the talent to swing either way. The winds of the '20's blew towards realism. Ansel on the other had kind of sucked at soft focus, so it was a natural and necessary war for him.

[Drew Wiley]

Frankly, I prefer EW's earlier work to his later style. BW, just the opposite. AA's pictorial or soft-focus phase was relatively brief, though the "feel" of it carried over
onto his early "parmelian" mtn prints, which sometimes had an atmospheric quality that took him a couple more decades the fully revive in its more clinical zone system form. Perhaps the most flexible switch hitter of all was Steichen, though I've never bothered to research the actual lenses he used for his more "pictorial" portrait sessions. He managed to give real theatrical "punch" to his portraits, while still including the best of semi-soft technique. I enjoy that kind of thing, but never
try to emulate it myself.

[goamules]

I've always liked these by Karl Struss:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PiqBRDqhiWU/TdMCR3pvgPI/AAAAAAAAAA4/CUG3giu9WBU/s1600/struss1.jpg

http://www.theasc.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/beb-daniels.jpg

[dap]

. Perhaps the most flexible switch hitter of all was Steichen, though I've never bothered to research the actual lenses he used for his more "pictorial" portrait sessions. He managed to give real theatrical "punch" to his portraits, while still including the best of semi-soft technique.

The early Steichen works are pretty amazing - they kind of blew my mind when I first saw them.

Robert Demachy is also a champ for early pictorialist work.

Both of them used Gum for a good portion of their early works - how much of the "look" was the choice of lens vs the chosen medium could probably be debated (obviously their individual talent trumped both).

[Struan Gray]

Sweden's biggest pictorialist name was Henry B. Goodwin. There's no single best archive of his work, but plenty online, including early pictorialist portraits of Greta Garbo. I did turn up the flickr account of the Preus Museum in Norway, which has some excellent sets of Scandinavian and international photographers. What are now regarded as typical Goodwin portraits are on this page:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/preusmuseum/sets/72157625387067155/detail/?page=3

Part of me wishes I could stop myself buying lenses, and start buying things like his portrait of Sibelius instead:

http://auktionsverket.se/auction/contemporary/2011-05-04/1116-henry-b/

Oh well. Just *one* more, and then I'll stop....

[BarryS]

I also love the early Steichen work. Stieglitz bought his best pictorialist pieces and later donated them to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/search-the-collections?ft=steichen%2c+edward+j.&noqs=true). My favorite is The Flatiron, a gum over platinum print. There are three versions from the same negative and they're all stunning--true masterpieces of photography. Steichen revealed very little technical information about his equipment or processes, but he had a very deep mastery of the technical aspects of photography and process work. His first job was as an apprentice lithographer and he later worked in a photographic lab in Paris. The Flatiron is printed from an enlarged negative, since there's no evidence Steichen ever shot with any format larger than 8x10. We do know he had at least one early P&S Semi-Achromat, purchased at around the same time as his friend F. Holland Day.

http://images.metmuseum.org/CRDImages/ph/web-large/DT1179.jpg

[AtlantaTerry]

I also love the early Steichen work. Stieglitz bought his best pictorialist pieces and later donated them to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/search-the-collections?ft=steichen%2c+edward+j.&noqs=true). My favorite is The Flatiron, a gum over platinum print. There are three versions from the same negative and they're all stunning--true masterpieces of photography. Steichen revealed very little technical information about his equipment or processes, but he had a very deep mastery of the technical aspects of photography and process work. His first job was as an apprentice lithographer and he later worked in a photographic lab in Paris. The Flatiron is printed from an enlarged negative, since there's no evidence Steichen ever shot with any format larger than 8x10. We do know he had at least one early P&S Semi-Achromat, purchased at around the same time as his friend F. Holland Day.



It seems to me that I have viewed a different version of the Flatiron Building photograph. In this one I can not see any detail of the carriage but in the other one I remember seeing the horse, wheels, driver's coat, etc.

[Emil Schildt]

"SHORPY"? educate me...

Jim, your link doesn't work for me.... (all others do)

[Jim Galli]

"SHORPY"? educate me...

Jim, your link doesn't work for me.... (all others do)

Emil, Shorpy.com is a fun site that runs different collections of delightful old photographs every day.

http://www.shorpy.com/

[DannL]

I uploaded two images of soft-focus portraits by Dorothea Lange (1921) that I own, to Shorpy. Shorpy never got around to making them available to the public. I assumed they weren't interested in portraiture.

I understand Dorothea worked for Arnold Genthe, and went to school under Clarence White. I've posted these images in the past, but can post them again if anyone is interested. Dann

[Jim Galli]

I uploaded two images of soft-focus portraits by Dorothea Lange (1921) that I own, to Shorpy. Shorpy never got around to making them available to the public. I assumed they weren't interested in portraiture.

I understand Dorothea worked for Arnold Genthe, and went to school under Clarence White. I've posted these images in the past, but can post them again if anyone is interested. Dann

I'd like to see them. Everything we're used to seeing from Dorothea is usually signature depression era images that became her stock in trade.

[Amedeus]

Sweden's biggest pictorialist name was Henry B. Goodwin. There's no single best archive of his work, but plenty online, including early pictorialist portraits of Greta Garbo.

There's a great compilation book on Goodwin published in 1998 ... "Goodwin, a tribute" by Bruno Ehrs and Carlo Bengtsson. I found it a nice touch that Goodwin's portrait by Alvin Langdon Coburn is facing the title page ...

[DannL]

102463 102464

It may be necessary to click on the image several times to see the larger version. These are probably nothing new since I've posted them in the past. I hope I'm not overdoing it. Now they will be permanently on the forum server.

I left the signature block intact in the scan, just for reference. Her original works are somewhat rare.

If anybody runs across other works (non RA/FSA) by Lange. I would be thrilled to see images of them.

[Jim Galli]

Those are a wonderful treat. Thank you!

[AtlantaTerry]

102463

I find it interesting that the above Lange photo looks like a Polaroid SX-70 layout - a square image with three thin borders then a larger fourth border at the bottom.

[DannL]

I find it interesting that the above Lange photo looks like a Polaroid SX-70 layout - a square image with three thin borders then a larger fourth border at the bottom.

The image plus the paper border on that image measures 8"x6.5". I have seen a number of images depicting the interiors of early studios and galleries where the walls were covered in sample works. Many of those pictures were framed with the larger bottom border.

291 art gallery (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/291_%28art_gallery%29)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/291-Kasebier_White-1906.jpg

[Mark Sawyer]

The thin borders with a larger border at the bottom was the rule rather than the exception. Look at a Cabinet Card or Carte de Visite...

[Struan Gray]

There's a great compilation book on Goodwin published in 1998 ... "Goodwin, a tribute" by Bruno Ehrs and Carlo Bengtsson. I found it a nice touch that Goodwin's portrait by Alvin Langdon Coburn is facing the title page ...

I don't have it (too many nice books to buy them all), but I agree it's a good 'un. Bruno Ehrs is no mean photographer himself.

Goodwin's portraits have become *the* iconical image of many famous Swedes. Banknotes and commemorative stamps seem nearly always to use his versions of famous writers, actors and politicians. He had a very firm formal graphic sense, and a light touch with the fuzzies, which still seems very attractive today. The dance portraits, and that odd 1920's phase of smiling with only the upper row of teeth, look a bit odd, but most of the other work is immediately likeable and impressive.

I do have a small book about Goodwin's postcards put out by the Nordic Academic Press:

http://www.nordicacademicpress.com/bok/henry-b-goodwins-vykort/

The reproductions are small, but it is a comprehensive catalogue raisonné rather than a greatest-hits selection, and the background info is fascinating (if you can read the Swedish). Quite a few of the pictures are online at luminous-lint.

[Struan Gray]

The thin borders with a larger border at the bottom was the rule rather than the exception. Look at a Cabinet Card or Carte de Visite...

It was also a standard way of framing square or round Chinese and Japanese paintings and prints. And fans.

[Struan Gray]

On Shorpy.

They are great. And I admire their persistence and curiosity.

But once you've found an image you like, it can be worth searching for it in the Library of Congress catalogue. LOC has the original large scans without the Shorpy watermark. They also often have photographer's alternative takes on the same scene. Even more useful for the student of pictorialism, for some photographers they have the original negative and a copy of the final print. The differences can be large.

[Emil Schildt]

need to look up the name of this photographer, but I find the images rather amazing.. (platinum prints as far as I remember)

[BarryS]

need to look up the name of this photographer, but I find the images rather amazing.. (platinum prints as far as I remember)


Baron Adolf de Meyer. I've seen the Hydrangea print and it's beautiful.

[goamules]

Betty Boyd Hartsook Studios

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/70/Betty_Boyd_%28actress%29.jpg

Larger (http://www.flickr.com/photos/alicejapan/3412975390/)

[Jim Galli]

http://tonopahpictures.0catch.com/McGowan/CharlesKeoughS.jpg
Charles Keough

Simply one of the most elegant portraits I've ever encountered. I own this negative now, but the original photographer was a Tonopah Nevada Studio portraitist and general photographer named Mac MacGowan.

I recently bought a collection of his negatives from his granddaughter.

Charles Keough was at one time the controller of the largest ranch in US history. 4,000,000 acres in central Nevada. Does he not look the part? This portrait was done probably 10 - ish years after that outfit unraveled. The real estate was vast, but part of it was where I work every day out on the Tonopah test range.

The image is done on half frame 5X7 which was common after WWII. I would guess this image at 1949. I would guess the lens as perhaps a Heliar or Tessar. Maybe even a Cooke.

When I got to look at what remained of the estate, there were just a few dusty cameras that were probably never even part of the enterprise. No studio camera and stand. No lenses. I'd guess this lens at about 16" focus. If I were going to try to duplicate this, I'd probably grab my Ross 16" f4.5 Tessar.

[Toyon]

Weird. There is a lot of great soft-focus work from the past. Yet, I have never seen a good soft-focus photograph made after about 1950 - not even with the same lenses. Amateurs and soft-focus do not make a good combination.

[Jim Galli]

Weird. There is a lot of great soft-focus work from the past. Yet, I have never seen a good soft-focus photograph made after about 1950 - not even with the same lenses. Amateurs and soft-focus do not make a good combination.

You meant, except for all the lovely work on my website, right?? Just wanted to clear that up.

[jcoldslabs]

I always liked this one.

Imogen Cunningham, Edward Weston and Margrethe Mather, 1922.


http://www.kolstad.us/ebay/Cunningham-Weston-1922.jpg

[TheToadMen]

I recently bought this book on Ebay:

Truthbeauty: Pictorialism and the Photograph as Art, 1845-1945
by Alison Nordstrom, Vancouver Art Gallery Staff (Contribution by), Alison Nordstrom (Contribution by)
103076

It's a beautiful book with 121 fine images from all over the world and stories about/from photographers and other people from that time period.

Product Details
ISBN-13: 9781553659815
Publisher: D & M Publishers
Publication date: 11/22/2011
Edition description: Second Edition
Pages: 160
Product dimensions: 9.30 (w) x 11.10 (h) x 0.80 (d)

Overview: "The hauntingly beautiful works of the Pictorialist movement are among the most spectacular photographs ever created. Beginning in the late nineteenth century, Pictorialist artists sought to elevate photography— until then seen largely as a scientific tool for documentation—to an art form equal to painting. Adopting a soft-focus approach and utilizing dramatic effects of light, richly coloured tones and bold technical experimentation, they opened up a new world of vision expression in photography. More than a hundred years later, their aesthetic remains highly influential.
TruthBeauty contains 121 stunning works by the form’s renowned artists, including Julia Margaret Cameron, Alvin Langdon Coburn, Robert Demachy, Peter Henry Emerson, Gertrude Käsebier, Heinrich Kühn, Edward Steichen and Alfred Stieglitz. Together, the collected works trace the evolution of Pictorialism over the three decades in which it predominated.
This is the only collection of Pictorialist photographs by artists from North America, the United Kingdom, continental Europe, Japan and Australia in a single publication. Scholarly essays, and a selection of historic texts by Pictoralist artists, complete this rich overview of the first truly international art movement."

[Louis Pacilla]

This is a very excellent book from the past that I would guess is not new to most. If you've missed this you may want to give it a read/view. "The Valiant Knights of Daguerre" by Sadakichi Hartmann.

http://books.google.com/books?id=norFsq8c-2MC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

[jp]

I recently bought this book on Ebay:

Truthbeauty: Pictorialism and the Photograph as Art, 1845-1945
by Alison Nordstrom, Vancouver Art Gallery Staff (Contribution by), Alison Nordstrom (Contribution by)
103076

It's a beautiful book with 121 fine images from all over the world and stories about/from photographers and other people from that time period.



Indeed a nice book!

After the Photo-Secession: American Pictorial Photography, 1910-1955
Christian A. Peterson

is also nice.

Pictorialism into Modernism: The Clarence H. White School of Photography by Marianne Fulton

is also recommended if you like that edge/transition between the two.

[TheToadMen]

And here is a very good website with info, vintage publications and beautiful old examples of photogravures, a technique often used in Pictorialism:
http://www.photogravure.com/key_examples/keyworks_glasgow.html

Or as it is eloquently described on the website:
"Celebrating the beauty and history of the photogravure process and the important role it has played in the evolution of fine art photography."

[DannL]

Steichen: The Master Prints 1895-1914

http://www.amazon.com/Steichen-The-Master-Prints-1895-1914/dp/0870705814

http://www.moma.org/docs/press_archives/5583/releases/MOMA_1978_0019_15.pdf?2010


http://www.photogravure.com/collection/searchResults.php?page=1&artist=Steichen,%20Edward


I can't say that I've seen any modern works that are as pleasing to the eye as Steichen's works. So, What happened to art and photography? When did they part ways? :( That's probably a topic worthy of a thread of it's own, I do think.