"Lenses embracing the beautiful": pictorial photographs from the Two Red Roses Foundation

Abstract

A photography movement emerged during the late nineteenth century featuring soft-focus effects, tonally subtle images, and atmospheric elements that mimicked the current Tonalism style of painting. Practitioners referred to this as Pictorialism, and photographers such as Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, Alvin Langdon Coburn, Gertrude Käsebier, Clarence H. White, Adolf Fassbender, and Edward S. Curtis used their work to help champion the cause of photography as one of the fine arts. 'Lenses Embracing the Beautiful' analyzes the aesthetics and techniques of pictorial photography and discusses camera clubs, exhibitions, and publications that were essential to the success of the movement. More than forty separate artists are featured within, along with their biographies and over one hundred full-color plates of their best work from the collection of the Two Red Roses Foundation. Important photographic books and periodicals are also presented, including Stieglitz's influential journals Camera Notes and Camera Work, which helped spread Pictorialism and the later Photo-Secessionist style world wide.