The Early Styles of Art Photography

As photography became more popular, the conflict between art photographers (as they wanted to be known) and the wider art world grew. In the struggle to be recognized as real artists, art photographers developed and institutionalized different photographic styles to elevate their “hobby” into Fine Art. During Gunter’s career, pictorialism and naturalism were the dominant styles, the goal of which was to create images comparable to Fine Art paintings. To achieve this, both styles used soft focus and careful tonality, instead of valuing sharp lines and details. The distinction between these two styles, however, was in their intention. Pictorialism intended to convey emotion by choosing traditionally picturesque subjects, while the goal of naturalism was to simply show nature as the eye would normally see it. Peter H. Emerson, the man who articulated the naturalistic style, said, “In this mingled decision and indecision, this lost and found, lies all the charm and mystery of nature.” This intention is clear in some of Gunter’s work, though his experimentation refuses strict categorization. It was not until the end of Gunter’s career, around the 1920s, that art photography moved away from pictorialism to straight photography, a style that embraced the modernization of art by emphasizing geometric shapes and the mechanical nature of cameras.