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Glite Dictionary
📷 Artistic photography 🖼️ Picture-like style
pictorialism

pictorialism

8.4
A focus on how things look rather than their deeper meaning
  • noun
  • /pɪkˈtɔːriəlɪzəm/
translation icon : pictorialismo
  • The exhibition showcased the beauty of pictorialism through stunning landscape photographs.

Examples

  • Unlike the decorative sentimentality of pictorialism or the abstract formalism of much of classic straight photography, in the 1930s documentary photography seemed to perform a real function, to make a demonstrable social contribution.

    Academic text (2004)

  • I call this contemporary pictorialism.

    Academic text (2006)

  • Many photographers embraced pictorialism to create images that appeared painterly and visually striking.

  • Pictorialism often focuses on aesthetics, prioritizing visual appeal over the narrative of the photograph.

Synonyms

stylization
vspictorialism
1 6.8

Representation of something using a particular style instead of a realistic look

prioritizes surface image and appearance over deeper meaning
visuality
vspictorialism
  • Jargon
7.3

The way things look and how people see or understand them

stresses picture-like look and appearance instead of inner meaning

How Pictorial

pictorialism
8.4
illustration
66 2.8
abstraction
6 8.0

Surface Forms

pictorialism singular
pictorialisms plural

Morphology

pictorialism = pictorial (transparent) = picture + al + ism

The formation from 'pictorial' + '-ism' is a regular suffixation yielding a noun for the practice or quality associated with pictorial qualities.

Etymology

Pictorialism comes from the Latin pictura 'painting' plus -ism 'style', and it is the same root as the common word picture. So pictorialism means representing things in a picture-like way, putting the look or image first rather than deeper meaning.