Genres, Movements & Theory — 60 Terms Defined

Landscape Photography Genres, Movements & Theory Photography of natural or altered land, sea and sky, often concerned with light, weather and a sense of place.

Macro Photography Genres, Movements & Theory magnification ratio Photography at magnifications approaching or exceeding life size, revealing detail invisible to the unaided eye. m ≥ 1:1

Magnum Photos Genres, Movements & Theory A photographers' cooperative founded in 1947 to let its members retain copyright and control over their own work.

Manipulation Standards Genres, Movements & Theory The rules defining what processing is permissible in a given field of photography.

New Colour Photography Genres, Movements & Theory The movement of the 1970s that established colour as a serious medium for art photography rather than a commercial or amateur one.

New Objectivity Genres, Movements & Theory A German movement of the 1920s favouring clear, unsentimental description of the world, often in close-up and typological form.

New Topographics Genres, Movements & Theory A 1975 exhibition and the approach it named, photographing the altered landscape — suburbs, industrial parks, car parks — in a deliberately neutral manner.

New Vision Genres, Movements & Theory An interwar movement, associated with the Bauhaus, that treated the camera as a device for seeing in ways the eye cannot.

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.

Self-portrait Genres, Movements & Theory A photograph in which the photographer is also the subject.

Snapshot Aesthetic Genres, Movements & Theory A deliberate adoption of the informal look of amateur photography — casual framing, direct flash, apparent artlessness.

Sports Photography Genres, Movements & Theory Photography of athletic competition, capturing peak action, effort and outcome.

Staged Photography Genres, Movements & Theory Photography in which the scene is deliberately constructed and performed for the camera.