In 1889 P.H. Emerson produced a book entitled "Naturalistic Photography for Students of Art." This was at the time pictorialism was in vogue, and Emerson was making the plea that contrived photography, with such manipulation as combination printing, should have no place in photography.
Emerson's main claim was that one should treat photography as a legitimate art in its own right, rather than seek to imitate other art forms; imitation was not needed - it could confer its own legitimacy without it.
Emerson's feeling was that pictorialism was becoming somewhat bogged down due to sentimentalism and artificiality. At the same time, others were becoming dissatisfied with the fact that the Photographic Society had become too concerned with scientific rather than with artistic aspects of photography.
Emerson urged that photographic students should look at nature rather than paintings, that one should look at the range-finder or focusing screen and see what kind of pictures this created. He felt every student should
"..try to produce one picture of his own...which shall show the author has something to say and knows how to say it; that is something to have accomplished..."
© Robert Leggat, 1999.