3.9. The Naturalists

Toward the end of the 19th century, Pictorialism and High Art had run their course, and contrived studio scenes and combination printing techniques were considered passé. In both America and Great Britain, exponents of the Naturalist approach sought a return to the fundamentals of photography. Naturalism's zealous British advocate, Peter Henry Emerson, attacked all artificiality and retouching; in America, Stieglitz and other leading Photo-Secessionists presented their work unapologetically as an art in its own right. The photograph still aimed to be a thing of beauty, but evolved into a record of everyday working-class life, often exposing the genuine hardship of its subjects. While some of the images taken by leading exponents such as Emerson and Sutcliff may have been more carefully contrived than the images themselves might suggest, they are interestingand, indeed, radicalfor representing the lives of ordinary working people, perhaps for the first time in the history of photography.

Emulating the style of Naturalism is less a question of digital manipulation than of careful choice of subject matter. Everyday scenes were captured in outdoor settings. Subjects appeared to be unaware of the photographer as they set to work in the fields or on fishing boats, and were often featured facing away from the camera. Look for water in the foreground, as featured in Emerson's photographs of Norfolk marshlands or Frank Sutcliff's harbour at Whitby in Yorkshire. Elements such as mist and smoke soften the picture. Echoing the ideas of the Impressionists, Emerson made use of natural, out-of-focus edges, and some of George Davison's most famous photographs have a remarkably diffuse quality. So be careful that you don't overwork the imagekeep it soft and understated.

I selected this picture because water and reeds feature in many of Peter Emerson's wetland scenes.

Panchromatic filmfilm sensitive to all colors of lightwasn't introduced until the 1910s, and until then, blue sky tended to look very light and clouds weakly defined. So, convert your image to black and white using higher Blue channel valuesnotice how the Red channel produces strong skies. In the Layers palette, click the "Create new fill or new adjustment layer" icon, select Channel Mixer, check Monochrome and drag the Blue slider up to 100% and the Red slider down to 0%. Always examine grayscale conversions carefully. You can often make a better black-and-white picture by converting distinct image areas individually. In this case, the Blue channel conversion makes the foreground water very dark, but see how the Red channel contains shadow detail in that area. To restrict the conversion, select the Brush tool (B), making sure it is soft-edged so that any transitions will be smooth, and set Foreground Color to Black (D). Click the adjustment layer mask in the Layers palette and paint away the conversion in the affected area. Add another Channel Mixer adjustment layer and adjust the sliders to fine-tune the conversion. Use the Green channel to convert the remaining colored areas. You will seldom require more than one extra conversion layer, but there is no reason why you shouldn't use more. Late 19th-century photographs were generally low in contrast, so add a Curves adjustment layer. Click a point near its bottom end and drag it slightly upward, lightening the shadows, then click a point near the top and drag it down a little, pulling down the highlights. Some of Emerson's prints have even lower contrast, as though they were shot in twilight. To recreate this effect, drag the curve's top right "white" point downward and drag the bottom left "black" point upward. Platinum printing was rapidly gaining in popularity during this period, so add a Curves adjustment layer to simulate the typical platinum tone (see page 54). Alternatively, add a gentle sepia tone with a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. If you want to add a little soft focus, activate the image layer and use Alt/Opt + Ctrl/Cmd + J to duplicate it. Name the new layer "Out of Focus" and set its blending mode to either Lighten or Darken. Add a little blur using Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. In the Layers palette, ensure that the Out of Focus layer is active and click the "Add layer mask" icon. Using a soft-edged brush, paint black onto the layer's mask. Paint so only the picture edges are blurred. The Naturalists portrayed urban, coastal, and agricultural scenes in soft, understated tones.