Peter Henry Emerson
Pure imitation of nature won’t do, the artist must add his intellect, hence his work is an interpretation... Never rest satisfied then until these requirements are all fulfilled, and destroy all works in which they are not to be found.
Emerson was a British photographer who promoted photography as an independent art form and created and aesthetic theory called naturalistic photography. In 1889, Emerson published a book called naturalistic photography for the students of the arts where he showed his images from rural Norfolk and Suffolk where he was working within the landscape.
In Emerson's book naturalistic photography, he highlighted a system of aesthetics and stated that a photograph should be direct and simple and show the real people in their environments and not be modelled and posed.
Naturalistic photography consists of three books each containing several chapters.
When Emerson became more involved in photography, he thought photography as a medium of artistic expression superior to all other black and white media as it reproduced the light tones and different textures of nature.
In my work I quite to look at the different textures and abstractness in nature as its quite interesting to me and always looking around and wandering and when I just go on walks I like to take my camera and shoot, as I find it quite tranquil.
Emerson's work is often grouped with the broad movement of Pictorialism within photography. The term first being introduced in the title of the book Pictorial effect in photography.
Pictorialism includes common themes in conveying atmosphere and mystery often with the use of soft focus and demonstrating that the image had been made by the artist.
The movement was the perceived need for photography to be considered an art rather than a simple mechanical reproduction as it was often represented by artists in other media.
Within my work I wasn't to convey my photography in a sense of abstractness and art form creating a sense of atmosphere within my photography and a sense of tranquillity.
