Pictorialism
A movement from the 1880s to the 1910s that sought recognition for photography as art by imitating painting and printmaking.
In depth
Pictorialists used soft-focus lenses, textured papers and hand-worked processes such as gum bichromate to produce images that looked deliberately unphotographic. The strategy won photography a place in galleries and was then rejected by the next generation, who argued that photography's claim to art lay in exactly the qualities Pictorialism suppressed.
Examples in practice
A misty, soft-focus landscape printed in warm brown on textured paper deliberately resembles a charcoal drawing.