The invention of photography revolutionised visual culture in the 19th century. From the very beginning, there were well-known protagonists who saw it as a new art form rather than just a technical tool. For example, Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-1879), who is still one of the most innovative and important artists in the history of photography today, proclaimed: ‘It is my endeavour to ennoble photography, and to secure to it the character and utility of high art, by combining the real and the ideal, and sacrificing nothing of truth, by devoting myself entirely to poetry and beauty. ‘ Rejecting the rigid conventions of Victorian photography, Cameron's oeuvre is characterised above all by a great love of experimentation: Scratches, stains or even fingerprints on the prints reveal the working process of the artist, who was in a lively exchange with the Pre-Raphaelite circle. She was one of the first to consciously use blurring as a stylistic device.
This became the hallmark of Pictorialism. In the fin de siècle, it was the first international movement in art photography to shape a poetic visual language that still resonates in our visual culture today. Alongside the art of Art Nouveau, Japonism and Impressionism, Symbolism also provided important impulses. The American Edward Steichen (1879-1973), for example, was inspired by the writings of the important Symbolist Maurice Maeterlinck (1862-1949) and by the paintings of Eugène Carrière (1849-1906). He also had a lifelong friendship with Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), from whom he also received photographic commissions.
With ‘PHOTO - ART - PHOTO’, the Clemens Sels Museum Neuss invites visitors for the first time in Germany to trace the significant influences of Symbolist and Pre-Raphaelite art on the history of photography. At the same time, contemporary positions open up a view of painterly tendencies in photography today.
Around 100 works, including works by Julia Margaret Cameron, Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, Gertrude Käsebier, Thomas Ruff, Elger Esser and Eleanor Antin, offer a surprising and fresh look at the history of (art) photography. The exhibition is accompanied by a richly illustrated catalogue published by Wienand Verlag.
