Pictorialism is one of the most multifaceted chapters in the history of photography in terms of its international networking, its contention with painting and its diverse range of technical forms. In art photography around 1900, a photographic style emerged that was primarily supported by ambitious amateurs that distinguished itself from established professional studios.

Starting in the 1980s, it gained recognition as an art form with innovative pictorial designs and aesthetic considerations of photography. As an exhibition organiser, editor and collector, Ernst Juhl (1850–1915) was one of the most important promoters of the pictorialist movement in Europe. His collection was acquired by the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg and the Kunstbibliothek Berlin. Here, along with the Collection Matthies-Masuren, it forms the core of their holdings of artistic photography around 1900 and was the starting point of the research project.

The project aims at an interdisciplinary analysis of the phenomenon of pictorialism that includes media studies as well as art history and the sociology of art. In the context of the project, the pictorialist holdings of the Kunstbibliothek were fully catalogued and processed.

The international symposium "Inspirations – Interactions: Pictorialism Reconsidered”  was the main starting point for networking and discussion. It took place from 21–23 November 2013, in the lecture hall of the Museum für Fotografie. The lectures examined such aspects as the materiality and objecthood of Pictorialist photography (Alison Nordström, Patrizia di Bello), the visualization of masculinity and femininity (Gabriele Betancourt Nuñez), contemporary perspectives on time, mechanization, and standardization (Michel Poivert), ideals and stylistic paradoxes within the movement (Russell Lord), hitherto unknown Japanese-American positions (David Martin), retouching practices (Dagmar Keultjes), transatlantic relationships (Christian Joschke), nineteenth-century reception of Pictorialism (Dominique de Font-Réaulx), as well as regional centers of gravity in photographic practice (Hanne Holm-Johnsen) and collecting activities (Maria Gourieva, Agnes Matthias.) 

The presentations can be downloaded here:

• Claudia Pfeiffer / Ulrich Rüter, Berlin / Hamburg: “Introduction / The Ernst Juhl Collection in the Kunstbibliothek Berlin“ (PDF, 5.05 MB)
• Gabriele Betancourt Nuñez, Hamburg: “Famous Men & Fair Women” – Focusing on the Pictures of Julia Margaret Cameron“ (PDF, 1.17 MB)
• Dominique de Font-Réaulx, Paris: "La Photographie est-elle un art? Issues Raised by Roger de la Sizeranne’s Book in 1897“ (PDF, 647 KB)
• Maria Gourieva, St. Petersburg: "Pictorialist Photography in the Collection of the State Museum and Exhibition Centre ROSPHOTO“ (PDF, 1.40 MB)
• Hanne Holm-Johnsen, Horten: "The Pictorialist Movement in Scandinavia, with Emphasis on Norway“ (PDF, 1.81 MB)
• Christian Joschke, Paris: "Ernst Juhl and Alfred Stieglitz: The Friendship That Never Was“ (PDF, 1.84 MB)
• Dagmar Keultjes, Florence: "Let’s Talk about the Weather! Negative Manipulation Techniques Used to Produce Atmosphere in Landscape Photography 1850–1900“ (PDF, 2.79 KB)
• Russell Lord, New Orleans: "The Opposite of Pictorialism: Contradictions and Paradoxes in the Pictorialist Movement“ (PDF, 0.9 MB)
• David Martin, Seattle: "Innovative Isolation: Re-examining Pictorialism Through the Recovery of Reputation“ (PDF, 8.2 MB)
• Agnes Matthias, Regensburg: "A selection of the best that has been achieved in the wide field of amateur photography." On the Origin of the Photography Collection of Dresden's Kupferstich-Kabinett (PDF, 492 KB)
• Alison Nordström, Cambridge: “The Pictorialist Object” (PDF, 1,08 MB)
• Michel Poivert, Paris: “French Pictorialism: Anti-Modernity and Avant-Garde in Photography” (PDF, 715.5 KB)

Academic team: Dr. Ludger Derenthal, Christine Kühn, Claudia Pfeiffer, Ulrich Rüter, Kunstbibliothek; Lars Spengler, freelance researcher
Supported by: The Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM)
Project duration: 2013 to 2014