1. The pictorialism movement is a movement away from commercial trash to intervene objects on camera lenses to make photography a handmade process. Photographs began to look like art, paintings, drawings, and beautiful rich prints. Photographers started to view pictures as having an illusional world with no rules or limits, like a seductive quality. It brought back the nostalgic traditions of handmade art.
  2.  Photographies can capture shapes and forms simply, directly, and with a sharp focus. The modernist movement became merely known as straight photography; it became the aesthetic of the 20s. In other words, taking photos of how they were and not manipulating them. The picture was supposed to look the way it looks in the viewfinder; the camera was supposed to clearly focus. It symbolized people had to face reality, not look around with it. Instead of editing or manipulating the image afterward, straight photos will focus on the photo’s selection and framing.
  3. Edward Weston and Aaron Siskind were influenced by sharp, focused realism photographs, and the camera became an instrument of a new vision. In Aaron Siskind’s artworks, he opens a new generation of abstract paintings, expressing his photographs in an abstract form. For example, he takes photos of a free environment and a natural background. However, the intention of abstract art is an illusional work, so the painting has no exact meaning, and we, as artists, can only infer the depth of meaning of abstract art.
  4. Andreas Gursky is definitely a straight photographer. In his artworks, we artists can infer that his intention is to purely show the natural setting and beautiful surroundings that we forget in our lives. For example, Gursky takes pictures of plain fields and desert roads. Even though he uses a variety of angles in his photographs, his images are well-focused and not manipulated. On the other hand, Uta Barth also takes photos of natural settings like a house or office; however, the images are all blurry, foggy, and out of focus. In other words, she manipulates her pictures, meaning she is a pictorialist photographer. In my opinion, the new generation of photographers tends to take straight photos, trying to show the pure beauty of today and our lives.

Lubow, Arthur. “How Uta Barth’s Art Illuminates.” Nytimes.com, The New York Times, 9 Feb. 2023, www.nytimes.com/2023/02/09/arts/design/uta-barth-light-getty-photography.html. Accessed 17 Jan. 2025.

Parkin, Tim. “Andreas Gursky | the Rheine | on Landscape.” Onlandscape.co.uk, 26 Nov. 2011, www.onlandscape.co.uk/2011/11/andreas-gursky-the-rheine/. Accessed 17 Jan. 2025.

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