Genres, Movements & Theory — 12 Terms Defined

Photo Essay Genres, Movements & Theory count A sequence of photographs arranged to develop an argument or narrative that no single image could carry.

Photo-Secession Genres, Movements & Theory A group founded by Alfred Stieglitz in New York in 1902 to promote photography as a fine art.

Photographic Ethics Genres, Movements & Theory The body of principles governing how photographers treat subjects, audiences and the truthfulness of their images.

Photographic Series Genres, Movements & Theory count A set of images made to a consistent rule or format, where the repetition itself carries meaning.

Photographic Truth Genres, Movements & Theory The contested assumption that a photograph is a reliable record of what was in front of the camera.

Photojournalism Genres, Movements & Theory Photography made to report news, bound by professional standards of accuracy and non-interference.

Pictorialism Genres, Movements & Theory A movement from the 1880s to the 1910s that sought recognition for photography as art by imitating painting and printmaking.

Portraiture Genres, Movements & Theory Photography whose subject is a person, aiming to convey something of their character, role or presence.

Postmodern Appropriation Genres, Movements & Theory An artistic strategy of rephotographing or reusing existing images to question authorship, originality and the circulation of pictures.

Product Photography Genres, Movements & Theory Photography of goods for sale, prioritising accurate description of form, colour and material.

Provoke Genres, Movements & Theory A short-lived Japanese photography magazine of 1968-70 whose grainy, blurred, high-contrast style challenged documentary convention.

Punctum Genres, Movements & Theory Roland Barthes's term for the detail in a photograph that pierces the individual viewer and gives it personal force.