A comprehensive new publication titled "La photographie pictorialiste" by Julien Faure-Conorton has been released by Actes Sud as part of their renowned Photo Poche collection, offering an in-depth examination of one of photography's most significant artistic movements.

The double volume tackles the fundamental question: Is photography an art? This inquiry is explored through a detailed study of pictorialism, a complex and multifaceted movement that emerged in England around 1890 and rapidly spread across Europe, the United States, and eventually worldwide.

Pictorialism was primarily driven by non-professional photographers whose ambitious goal was to gain recognition for photography's creative potential. These artists sought to liberate the medium from its purely mimetic and documentary functions, instead creating prints that possessed genuine artistic qualities while reflecting their creators' individual personalities.

To achieve these artistic goals, pictorialists employed various interpretive techniques that involved intervention throughout the image-making process. During shooting, they utilized special lenses or soft-focus techniques to create softened renderings of their subjects. They manipulated negatives through retouching methods such as scraping the gelatin emulsion. During the printing process, they employed specialized techniques including platinum, carbon, or gum bichromate processes, whose malleability allowed for profound transformation of the negative's appearance.

The movement was highly organized, with photographers forming societies, clubs, and brotherhoods to defend their ideals and promote their vision of photography. Notable organizations included the Linked Ring in England, the Photo-Club de Paris in France, L'Effort in Belgium, and the Photo-Secession in the United States. These groups actively collaborated through extensive proselytism, organizing countless international exhibitions of photographic art and publishing luxurious books, magazines, and portfolios richly illustrated with heliogravure printing. The most famous example of this publishing effort was Camera Work magazine, founded in New York by Alfred Stieglitz in 1903.

At the turn of the 20th century, pictorialism reached peak popularity, attracting numerous photographers whose leaders became internationally renowned. Prominent figures included Frederick H. Evans and James Craig Annan from Great Britain, Robert Demachy and Constant Puyo from France, Heinrich Kühn and Hugo Henneberg from Austria, and Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, Clarence H. White, and Gertrude Käsebier from the United States.

The movement eventually faced challenges from a new generation of photographers eager to develop an aesthetic based on photography's intrinsic qualities—objectivity, precision, and sharpness. Pictorialism gradually faded after World War I, giving way to the New Vision movement. However, its ideals and methods of action persisted, maintaining numerous followers during the interwar period in both Europe and the United States.

Demonstrating the vitality of this later or second-generation pictorialism, new pictorialist schools emerged in countries that had little or no participation in the original 1900s movement, including Japan, Czech Republic, Canada, and Australia. While photographers' perspectives evolved to incorporate graphic revolutions of the New Vision, their approach remained faithful to the aesthetic principles established at the movement's origin.

This 248-page double volume represents the culmination of the latest research on pictorialism, offering a comprehensive overview through 125 photographs by 77 artists from 15 countries. The publication spans from the movement's origins through the interwar period, presenting both celebrated names and lesser-known or recently discovered figures.

The book thoroughly examines the multiple processes that made the movement famous and explores its aesthetic particularity, from the renowned pigment prints including charcoal, gum bichromate, and bromoil techniques to autochromes and heliogravure. Beyond an introductory essay covering pictorialism's history, characteristics, and challenges, the volume includes biographical notes for each represented photographer. Printing processes of reproduced works are precisely identified and described in a comprehensive glossary, with a complete bibliography.

The extensive roster of represented photographers spans multiple continents. From Germany: Rudolf Dührkoop, Georg Einbeck, Hugo Erfurth, Wilhelm von Gloeden, Theodor and Oscar Hofmeister, Baron A. de Meyer, Nicola Perscheid, and Otto Scharf. Australia is represented by John Kauffmann, while Austria features Hugo Henneberg, Heinrich Kühn, and Hans Watzek.

Belgium contributors include Émile Chavepeyer, Gustave Marissiaux, Léonard Misonne, and Émile Rombaut. Canada is represented by Harold Mortimer-Lamb, and Spain features Antoni Arissa, Antoni Campañà Bandranas, and José Ortiz Echagüe.

The United States has substantial representation with Paul L. Anderson, Zaida Ben-Yusuf, Anne Brigman, Alvin L. Coburn, William E. Dassonville, F. Holland Day, Rudolf Eickemeyer, Frank Eugene, Adolf Fassbender, Paul B. Haviland, Gertrude Käsebier, George H. Seeley, Edward J. Steichen, Alfred Stieglitz, Karl F. Struss, and Clarence H. White.

French photographers featured include George Besson, Fernand Bignon, Maurice Bucquet, Mme A. Deglane, Robert Demachy, Pierre Dubreuil, Alfred Fauvarque-Omez, Alphonse Gibory, André Hachette, Céline Laguarde, René Le Bègue, Charles Lhermitte, René Michau, Antonin Personnaz, and Constant Puyo.

Great Britain is extensively represented by James Craig Annan, Malcolm Arbuthnot, Mrs. G. A. Barton, Walter Benington, Will and Carine Cadby, George Davison, Frederick H. Evans, Alfred Horsley Hinton, Charles Job, J. Dudley Johnston, Alex Keighley, James McKissack, F. J. Mortimer, and J. C. Warburg.

Additional international representation includes Mario Caffaratti, Domenico Riccardo Peretti-Griva, and Guido Rey from Italy; Ōri Umesaka from Japan; Henri Berssenbrugge, Bernard F. Eilers, and John Vanderpant from the Netherlands; František Drtikol, Drahomír Josef Růžička, and Anton Josef Trčka from Czech Republic; Alexis Mazourine from Russia; and Fred Boissonnas from Switzerland.

This comprehensive publication, scheduled for release in 2025 by Actes Sud in their Photo Poche collection, promises to serve as the definitive resource on pictorialism's seminal role in establishing photography's status as artistic creation, documenting this crucial chapter in photographic history with unprecedented detail and scholarly rigor.