From: Judy Seigel (jseigel@panix.com)
Date: 10/05/03-02:17:57 PM Z
There is indeed a considerable literature on "neo-pictorialism," which
began in the late 60s, including references in the early days of this
list. The revival owed a lot to Henry Holmes Smith and his students at
Indiana University (as noted in P-F #8 article by Jack Brubaker about
Smith himself, and my own 1979 interview with Betty Hahn). Some of the
early "Untitled's" from Friends of Photography, and some of the SPE's
magazine of the period, "exposure," and Afterimage also addressed the
issues.
But note the title of one of the first & best manuals of the period, Bea
Nettles' "Breaking the Rules." The cause was probably as much as anything
else combination of generational change and spirit of the 60s -- the new
generation had had enough already with the rules of don't touch and
purity.
Stieglitz himself used the term "crooked photography" in 1905 and
Sadakichi Hartmann (now he's a REAL "UGH" in my opinion) made a "Plea for
Straight Photography" in 1904... That first pictorialist period never did
last much past 1915, or at most 1920 -- so the neo has lasted longer !
There's some bibliography in P-F #3 with an article on "Violating the
Medium through History," but our current culture demands a new "ism" at
LEAST every decade, so whatever the other reasons, it was time.... I'd
suppose it's lasted til now because there's so much else going on at the
same time.
Meanwhile, one of the best if not THE best study of what brought it on and
why and how it happened is Lyle Rexer's "Photography's Antiquarian
Avant-Garde, the new wave in old processes." Besides the history & the
bibliography, there's a lot of great photo art.
Judy
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