Pictorialism photo shoot

I've been learning about Pictorialism, a photography movement from the early 19th century, which lasted until around the 1940s. Pictorialists were interested in processes and staging elaborate tableaux and less so about photographing reality. 

Pictorialist style portrait

Pictorialist style, with added crumpled tissue paper

TOOLS

Mamaya RZ67

Ilford FP4, Black & White

Ilford Fibre Based Classic Matt (5" x 7")

7 second exposure time, determined after creating a test strip with 5 and 10 second exposure times.

I wasn't entirely happy with this initially, as like many photographers, I was anticipating a crisp, sharp image. Then I remembered the brief and Pictorialists most definitely didn't have super sharp images.

I shot through a sheet of perspex smeared with Vaseline and added an old pair of tights over the camera lens to re-create the soft focus look used by the Pictorialists. 

The second image was created using 8” x 10” Ilford Resin Coated Paper, which creates a lovely warm tone.

To create an image with hazy, soft-focused qualities similar to Julia Margaret Cameron’s Julia Jackson(1867), a piece of crumpled tissue paper was placed over the resin coated paper and exposed for 8 seconds. The crumpled tissue paper produces a soft vignetting along the outer edge of the image, particularly along the right-hand side. 

Not a bad attempt for a first try, I feel.

Negatives from the Mamiya