page_title: Pictorialism
section_title: Canada
hierarchical_section_title: Pictorialism / Pictorialism by country / Canada
caption_attribution_description: English: Poster and photograph by A.S. Goss for Toronto Camera Club Exhibition at Toronto Art Museum (predecessor to Art Gallery of Ontario). Toronto, Canada.
context_page_description: Pictorialism is an international style and aesthetic movement that dominated photography during the later 19th and early 20th centuries. There is no standard definition of the term, but in general it refers to a style in which the photographer has somehow manipulated what would otherwise be a straightforward photograph as a means of "creating" an image rather than simply recording it. Typically, a pictorial photograph appears to lack a sharp focus, is printed in one or more colors other than black-and-white and may have visible brush strokes or other manipulation of the surface. For the pictorialist, a photograph, like a painting, drawing or engraving, was a way of projecting an emotional intent into the viewer's realm of imagination.
  Pictorialism as a movement thrived from about 1885 to 1915, although it was still being promoted by some as late as the 1940s. It began in response to claims that a photograph was nothing more than a simple record of reality, and transformed into an international movement to advance the status of all photography as a true art form.
context_section_description: Pictorialism in Canada initially centered on Sidney Carter (1880–1956), the first of his countrymen to be elected to the Photo-Secession. This inspired him to bring together a group of pictorial photographers in Toronto,  the Studio Club in Toronto, with Harold Mortimer-Lamb (1872–1970) and fellow Secessionist Percy Hodgins. In 1907 Carter organized Canada's first major exhibition of pictorial photography at Montreal's Art Association. Carter and fellow photographer Arthur Goss attempted to introduce pictorialist principles to the members of the Toronto Camera Club, although their efforts were met with some resistance.
caption: 1917 exhibition poster
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