Column: The Pictorialist…Hey, Look! It’s a Picture Book!
1.16.10: Hey, look! It’s a picture book!
Of all forms and methods and styles and materials and construct of communication, I think pictorialism is truly the most universal of all languages. It doesn’t take much to recognize whatever is being pictured (or communicated). Usually, one look is all it takes. Really, not much translation is needed for anyone to see, know and understand whatever it is that may be in the pictures.
The visual language of pictorialism (which today, is dominated by photography) has an immediacy of recognition that perhaps written or spoken language cannot rival. It is almost immediately understandable by anyone from anywhere all over the world. Although in some cases, pictures may require that a viewer possess a body of knowledge to sufficiently recognize its context, or for its meaning to be fully appreciated, in which case, often necessitating the construct of written or verbal language, pictures for the most part speak for itself.
If I’m not mistaken, the discovery of the many technological aspects that makes photography possible goes a long, long way—as far back as the 5th century B.C. But it was only sometime in the 1820s, with the development of chemical photography, that the process became usable. Since then, we never stopped snapping shots or looking at pictures.
Nowadays, photography is so ubiquitous that we no longer really stop to wonder anymore about the wonders of photographic pictorialism. We are so used to it that we probably cannot count how many pictures we actually see in a day, and we don’t really make a fuss about snapping a few pictures ourselves. Looking at and making/sharing pictures has become part of our everyday lives.
In today’s digital age, more and more people carry cameras with them and can take pictures at any time anywhere. And sharing these photos have become instantaneous. With our wireless highways of communications, we can send and share pictures we’ve just snapped, literally, in a snap.
As we are all now willing and happy participants in the art and craft of mostly digital and mostly popular forms of photography, it is not surprising that in recent years, our collective interest in learning photography has fueled the explosive demand for photography books. I am under the constant and happy threat of being buried under a growing collection of these fine books.
But that hazard is something I would not on you. So, from here on, I’d be happy to pick out and share with you some of the most interesting photography books that I think you might want to know about, and learn from.
–Dominique
email Dominique at dominiquejames@mac.com
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