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TRANSITION PORTFOLIO - A LEVEL PHOTOGRAPHY

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TRANSITION PORTFOLIO - A LEVEL PHOTOGRAPHY

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If you have not achieved a grade 6 in GCSE photography, you must submit a photography portfolio by 10th July to Mrs Ashby by email: aashby@st-martins.essex.sch.uk

Please read the info within this link for further info and guidance.

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A Level Photography - Portfolio Requirements - summer 2026

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Complete your expressive sketchbook task over the summer and bring to your first lesson in September.

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Artist in Focus: David Hockney drawing from Life

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Artist in Focus: David Hockney drawing from Life

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Mark Powell is a British portrait artist from Yorkshire. Powell also draws animals and objects, but he is well known for his contemporary drawings of people made using biro pen. Powell's biro drawings of people are often done onto antique documents such as maps and envelopes, giving a sense of history and timelessness to his artwork.
Mark Powell is a British artist, born in 1980. He is famous for his highly detailed and textured drawings which he creates using biro pens. He often adds layers of meaning to his artworks by drawing onto historical maps or found items such as envelopes from the war.
Mark Powell's portrait drawings usually show the subject face forward, looking directly at the viewer. He often shows no background and focuses on just the face and shoulders. Why do you think this is? What effect does this give to the portraits?
Top 10 Facts about artist Mark Powell:

Mark Powell was born in Yorkshire in 1980

He has drawn all of his life and doesn't remember a time he didn't draw

Powell attended Huddersfield University and studied Fine Art Drawing and Painting

One of his university tutors called him a 'terrible artist'!

He is inspired by artists such as Jean Michel Basquiat, David Hockney, Samuel Bassett, Anthony Micallef and Richard Hamilton

He doesn't like the artwork he produces and always tries to make the next piece better

Powell uses biro pen because it is the 'most simple and readily available'

He is well known for drawing portraits but also draws animals and still life objects such as old typewriters and analogue cameras

Powell has exhibited his artwork around the world including in London and the USA

His advice for drawing is 'keep working and work often otherwise you'll never improve'

If you look at Mark Powell's biro pen drawings carefully, you might notice that he tries to capture each and every wrinkle or detail he can. He uses pen in a highly skilled way that allows him to show a huge range of tones and shades. This dramatic use of light and dark allows him to exaggerate the textures in the faces he draws. Some parts of the skin almost look like water!

Using tone in such a way gives his portrait drawings a sense of realism, however, he also allows the background of his drawings to show through too. This suggests that what he draws onto is just as important as the subject he is drawing.

Which part of the background has Mark Powell left without any drawing on? Why do you think this is?
Mark Powell often chooses to draw older people's portraits on to maps. The portraits are drawn in black biro pen, so the only colour comes from the maps revealed below. Using biro allows Powell to carefully control the amount of light and shade in his drawings, sometimes completely blocking out the background and sometimes letting it show through onto the faces. At times it looks as though the lines of the map could also be lines or wrinkles on the face, giving a ghostly or unnatural quality.

Mark Powell is well known for drawing portraits, however he also draws still life objects such as vintage typewriters and analogue cameras. His artworks enable the viewer to create a narrative between the subject he has drawn and the background he draws onto. Using vintage maps or old letters from the war suggest a sense of history and mystery in his artwork.

Mark Powell Object Drawings:

Mark Powell Animal Drawings:
What do you think of Mark Powell's artwork? How could you describe it? What lives can you imagine for his subjects? Let me know in the comments!

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Mark Powell is a British portrait artist from Yorkshire. Powell also draws animals and objects, but he is well known for his contemporary drawings of people made using biro pen. Powell's biro drawings of people are often done onto antique documents such as maps and envelopes, giving a sense of history and timelessness to his...

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Artist in focus: Nina Mae Fowler - National Portrait Gallery

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Join Nina Mae Fowler in her studio as she works on a new commission and reveals the complex processes behind her highly detailed drawings.

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Visit the Frank Lloyd Wright–designed Guggenheim Museum in NYC, part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. See the renowned permanent collection and special exhibitions.

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5 Old Master Artists Who Excelled At This Technique

Several artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Caravaggio and Rafael are credited with developing the chiaroscuro technique. Other artists who used it to great effect are Dou and Gentileschi.

They demonstrated how fascinating the subject of the painting could be, and how deep an effect darks and lights can have on the viewer.

The term chiaroscuro originated during the Renaissance when artists were drawing on colored paper. The paper had it's own value, and they would add light areas using white gouache, and dark areas using charcoal or ink, the paper itself, or watercolor paints. These were called "chiaroscurodrawings", but soon some artists were making woodcuts using the chiaroscuro technique.

Leonardo da Vinci Sketch

Master artist examples of chiaroscuro

There are some of excellent examples of chiaroscuro by famous artists throughout history. Here are five of the best.

Raphael

Raphael used light coming from a single source using the chiaroscuro technique to illuminate and lead the eye to the subject, usually portraits or groups of people in small rooms. With light coming from the left or right, artists could use the chiaroscuro technique to give volume to the body of the model. They would also create a strong contrast between the well-lit model and the very dark surrounding area of the canvas.

The Holy Family by Rafael

In this painting you can see the light appears from the left hand side and illuminates Mary and Jesus to make them the focal point. The secondary characters of Saint Elizabeth and John the Baptist on the far left are in partial light, and everything else is dark.v

Caravaggio

Caravaggio excelled at close physical observation, along with a dramatic use of chiaroscuro that came to be known as tenebrism. He darkened shadows and bathed subjects in bright shafts of light. Caravaggio liked to paint crucial moments and scenes in history, mostly involving violent struggles, torture, and death. He worked with live models, painted directly onto the canvas.

Salomé with the Head of John the Baptist, by Caravaggio

Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci is among the old master artists who developed the chiaroscuro technique. The world famous painting The Mona Lisa is an excellent example of this. He also used the chiaroscuro technique in his preliminary sketches for large paintings.

Mona Lisa, by Leonardo da Vinci

Gerrit Dou

Gerrit Dou was a student of Rembrandt and produced all kinds of artwork from niche illustrations to sumptuous night-scenes. He often painted his subjects in lantern or candle light.

Dou

Artemisia Gentileschi

Artemisia Gentileschi is considered among the most accomplished seventeenth-century artists, who painted in the style of Caravaggio. Her Baroque portraits were among the most spectacular and vibrant of her age. She was renowned for her authenticity and her skilled usage of chiaroscuro.

Self Portrait by Artemesia Gentileschi

How can you paint using the chiaroscuro technique?

To practice the chiaroscuro technique, all you need is your subject matter and good lighting. You can choose any subject of your choice, but the chiaroscuro technique is most suited to still-life and portrait art. The most crucial thing you need is to have a good light source. You can produce light at one side of your subject, by creating a mini cardboard light box.

Light box

How to make a light box

1. Find a box that is large enough to surround your painting subject.

2. Paint the inner side of a box with black paint. Any kind of paint do (house paint, oil paint, acrylic etc, but it is best to use a matte or satin finish so it does not reflect the light.)

3. Cut a small hole on the side of the box.

4. Position the box in a way that it gets natural light through the hole or place a bright lamp next to the hole, so it brightens your selected subject.

5. Place your still life or subject inside the box.

6. You can adjust the box and hole so that the beam of light is highlighting the subject, so that a half is in shade and a half in the light.

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What is chiaroscuro painting? Examples from master artists

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Several artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Caravaggio and Rafael are credited with developing the chiaroscuro technique. Other artists who used it to great

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How Photography Pioneered a New Understanding of Art

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How Photography Pioneered a New Understanding of Art

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The earliest widely available photographic process was made public in 1839 by Louis Daguerre, creator of the Daguerreotype. The popularization of photography caused a great stir in the art world and led to significant changes in how art was perceived. Since photography could depict the world more accurately than painting, the latter had to reinvent itself. For this reason, the focus of painters shifted from representing reality to portraying emotions and impressions. Photography can, for this reason, be seen as a great drive for the reinvention of painting that occurred in the late 19th and throughout the 20th century.

When and How Did Photography First Appear?

The first successful photographic process, the Daguerreotype, was created in 1837 by Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre. Daguerre had previously worked as a professional scene painter at a theater. For this reason, he already knew the camera obscura, a small, darkened room with a tiny hole or lens which allowed an image from the outside through. Daguerre took inspiration from this process in order to create the world's first photographic camera.

The camera obscura had already been used for centuries and allowed the reflection of images from the outside world on a flat surface. Until Daguerre, the main difficulty had been to engrave the image produced without having to draw over it on a piece of paper. Even after other inventors in the 19th century managed to transfer the image onto a piece of copper, the image quickly disappeared when exposed to light. Before Daguerre, it was impossible for a photograph to leave the darkroom in which it was produced.

However, Daguerre didn't engrave the images on paper but rather on silver-coated copper plates. This invention was announced to the public by a friend, Dominique François Jean Arago, in 1839. From there on, this new process spread throughout the world. In late 1839, daguerreotypes began being produced in several different industrialized nations. Due to how quickly it spread, this new invention was quickly perfected by several manufacturers.

It was in the United Kingdom in the early 1840s that the first European photography studios appeared. Revelation times decreased significantly, from Daguerre's thirty minutes to only twenty seconds in most studios. In the late 1880s, George Eastman created the first film rolls. From there on, photographers didn't need to carry silver-coated copper plates around, and photography became cheaper and more accessible.

Reception of Photography: The Democratization of Art

Photography had a significant impact in 19th-century society and its reception within artistic circles varied. While some welcomed photography and used it as an aid for their artistic production, others criticized this invention and refused to consider it as worthwhile for artists, as did Gustave Courbet.

Regardless of the differing receptions of photography, this invention revolutionized 19th-century European societies. For the first time, art had become affordable not only for the higher classes but also for the lower ones. Middle-class and lower-class families could have their portraits done almost instantly at a photography studio for relatively affordable prices.

It can be said that there was, for the first time, a democratization of art and image. While some reacted positively to this and the accessibility of art throughout society, others saw it as a banalization of artistic creation. Many were critical of photography and saw it only as an industrial imitation of art for commercial purposes.

Art Before the Advent of Photography

Despite their variations, the artistic movements in Europe before the 19th century had always had realism as their focus. Their change and variation manifested primarily in thematic change (what was painted) or technique, but realistic representation had always been valued in all of them.

At the time of the invention and spreading of photography, the leading art movements in Europe were Romanticism and Neoclassicism. The first had already introduced a shift in the artistic world by emphasizing the artist's expression.

In Romanticist painting, there were many elements that did not belong to reality (supernatural elements, for example) but were nevertheless represented realistically.

In Neoclassical painting, there was a revival of the representation of mythological figures and scenes. As beautifully and harmoniously as possible, these were always represented in great detail and accuracy. Even if some artists didn't fall within these artistic movements, they still painted realistically. Whether it was human subjects, nature, or mythological figures, what European paintings at the time had in common was their aim at representing images as accurately and in as much detail as possible.

Impressionism: An Art Movement Shaped by Photography

Painters who witnessed the advent of photography developed a different perception of reality and images than their predecessors. These artists understood that reality was transient and that each moment was fleeting and limited. The nature of reality, these painters realized, was to be in constant movement.

For this reason, the artistic movement of Impressionism was the first to deviate from the realistic norm in European art. The artists of Impressionism accepted that photography was the best for capturing fixed images and that they could not outdo it. For this reason, impressionists explored other dimensions of painting, such as color, light, and movement. This style made it clear that painting was not meant to compete with photography, but rather to complement it, to represent that which photography couldn't.

Impressionist painters, instead of accurately representing reality in detail, focus on the impression of reality and attempt to convey movement in their paintings. Impressionist paintings represent reality as perceived by the human eye: fleeting and transient, sometimes unclear or blurred. At first, these somewhat blurred representations of reality were criticized as low-quality or unfinished paintings, but in time they came to be appreciated.

From this time on, it became widely accepted that painting could not compete with photography in accurately representing reality. This realization, in a way, released painting from the shackles of realism and opened the door for a shift in artistic circles. Instead of valuing realism, artists began focusing on expressing emotions, impressions, and all that which is part of the human experience. In many ways, Impressionism created a bridge between traditional art, which had realism at its core, and modernist art, which distanced itself from an accurate representation of reality.

The Modernist Art Movement: A New Conception of Art

By the beginning of the 20th century, it was clear that photography had come to stay. Not only that but there was another brand-new medium for representing reality: film. After an 1895 film projection in Paris by the Lumière brothers, this new medium was quickly improved and gained significant popularity. Representing reality accurately was no longer a necessary task for painters. For this reason, Impressionism was only the first of a series of artistic movements which strayed away from realism.

During the first half of the 20th century, there were multiple movements within Modernism that transformed the art world. The first was Fauvism, which represented real scenes and subjects using bright colors which usually did not correspond with reality. Fauvists used thick brushstrokes, taking inspiration from Post-Impressionist painters such as Vincent van Gogh. The foremost name in Fauvism was Henri Matisse. When asked what the color of the lady's dress in his famous painting Woman with a Hat was, he allegedly replied: " Black, obviously."

One of the earliest movements within the Modernist current was Expressionism, which had its origins in Van Gogh and Edvard Munch, but was significantly developed a few decades later through the German group Die Brücke ( The Bridge). In Expressionism, the focus is not to represent the outward reality accurately, but the inward reality, feelings and emotions. Expressionist artists used vibrant colors and unusually thick brush strokes, and the resultant paintings were extremely dense and intense, conveying clear emotions and environments.

Particularly during the years following World War I, Expressionist paintings become particularly grotesque and dark. By focusing on emotions in the representation of reality, Expressionists could paint a more accurate and critical picture of society. In many ways, these paintings could show what photography could not, namely the artists' feelings surrounding the reality represented.

Probably one of the most famous movements within Modernism is Cubism. This movement revolutionized the concept of perspective and rejected the representation of three-dimensional objects. Instead of using typical modeling and perspective techniques, Cubists, such as Picasso or Braque, represented the objects as two-dimensional, often trying to include different perspectives of a single object at a time. By exploring perspective in such a way, Cubism, like other Modernist art movements, goes beyond what photography can do. Sometimes, the objects represented stray so far from reality that it is extremely difficult to understand what they are. Later, Cubism evolved to become more accessible and easier to understand, as seen on Picasso's most famous paintings, such as Guernica.

Around 1920 began one of the most important movements within Modernism: Surrealism. Surrealists pick up where the Dadaists left off. Though fruitful in its first years, the Dadaist movement quickly lost itself in its own absurdism and was abandoned by many artists. Surrealism, despite enigmatic and absurd in its own way, is not at all devoid of meaning. Quite on the contrary, it attempts to demonstrate the overlapping of psychological processes in the human mind that cause dreams and imagination.

In Surrealist painting, it is not the physical reality that is represented, but the dream and unconscious reality. As in other Modernist art movements, Surrealism is complementary to photography because it represents something well beyond its reach: the human mind and the dream world. By breaking free of the shackles of reality, Surrealist painters portray our minds and dreams in a revolutionary way.

How Modernist Painting Influenced Photography

Despite not being created with artistic purposes in mind, photography was quickly explored by artists. First, photography was used as an aid for painting or other traditional art forms. Later, some artists began exploring the combination of photography, painting, and other mediums, thus creating new art forms, such as photomontage. One of the foremost artists in this new artistic medium was Hannah Höch, an artist of the Weimar Republic, who created famous examples of photomontage.

It took some time and controversy for photography to be considered a fine art form. Many critics, well into the 20th century, still refused to accept photography as anything more than an industrial mechanism that imitated reality but had little artistic value on its own. However, throughout the 20th century, photography began being recognized as an art form, and photographers created innovative ways to express themselves through it.

Modernism also significantly influenced photography and its alternative representations of reality and human emotion. During the 20th century, photographers also explored experimental and abstract photography. Despite still representing reality, these types of photography explore shapes, colors, and perspectives without striving to accurately represent a given scene or object.

How Photography Changed Our Perception of Art: An Overview

The 1837 invention of the Daguerreotype impacted society and the artistic world that Daguerre could not have foreseen. By surpassing painting in its ability to represent reality, photography, in a way, released painting from the need to be realistic. Photography also allowed for more widespread access to art and portraits, which were in high demand in 19th-century society.

Impressionism was the first movement to be shaped by photography and stray from the realism that was the norm in European art. This movement acted as a bridge between previous movements and Modernism. In the various artistic movements within Modernism, many artists explored countless new ways to express themselves. Artists began focusing on the human experience and different ways to perceive reality and created revolutionary works. Photography followed the tendency towards subjectivity and abstraction, which contributed to its recognition as an art form of its own.

Nowadays, art is understood not only as a faithful representation of reality but as something which provokes thought and emotion. Many viewers are interested in the meanings and feelings an artwork conveys or represents or the social criticism it contains. Realism, although still valued by some, has lost its place as a priority within artistic circles and by artists themselves. This is especially clear when we think about art movements that have distanced themselves from reality, such as Abstract Expressionism.

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How Photography Pioneered a New Understanding of Art

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The advent of photography significantly changed how art was perceived and gave way to new artistic movements. These movements transformed the way we think about art.

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1. Paintings

2. Picture of the month

3. Caravaggio's 'Boy bitten by a Lizard'

Picture of the month June 2025

Through a real-life recreation of Caravaggio's 'Boy bitten by a Lizard', writer and performer Holly James Johnston explores some of the different interpretations this intriguing painting has inspired

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A young man convulses in pain as a small lizard bites his middle finger.

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio's ' Boy bitten by a Lizard ' depicts a distinct moment - the very moment at which the young man reacts to this surprise attack. The artist Giovanni Baglione remarked in 1642 that we can 'almost hear the boy scream'. Until the 20th century, scholars were more interested in the style of this painting than its meaning. Its meaning is ultimately unknown, and Caravaggio may never have intended to convey one. Nonetheless, different interpretations speak to the intrigue that this painting provokes.

The lively discussion around the meaning, or lack thereof, of 'Boy bitten by a Lizard' may be accounted for by the fact that the painting is part still life, part figure painting. In the early Baroque period, still lifes did not have the same prestige as figure painting, but in this work, Caravaggio has combined the two genres. The painting possesses all the hallmarks of a still life - glossy fruits, sweet-smelling flowers, small creatures. But here, the lizard is not merely a static component - it is doing something. And by making the lizard do something, Caravaggio introduces a narrative.

Perhaps there is something about the narrative element of this painting that makes us feel like it ought to have a meaning. After all, narrative is all about cause and effect, before and after. If the painting does have a meaning, or some kind of message the artist wishes to convey, it is through narrative that we, as viewers, look to interpret it.

The painting as an expression of emotion

For some art historians, the painting was not intended to have a specific meaning or message. For them, it is a study of extreme emotional expression, while others have suggested that it is a sensory exploration of touch. Indeed, the chiaroscuro - extreme contrast between light and dark - that Caravaggio is famous for accentuates the boy's surprise and pain as the lizard bites his finger. Dark shadows pool in the young man's knotted brow, showing his face muscles contorting in pain, while shadows line the tendons in his right hand as they seize up in shock.

The painting as an allegory

Discussion of the painting has often focused on the symbolism of the lizard. Some art historians read the painting as an allegory: the lizard's bite interpreted as a punishment for some unknown transgression.

The lizard's closeness to a serpent has led some art historians to read the painting as a Biblical allegory, reminiscent of the story of Adam and Eve in the Book of Genesis - a story all about the consequences of transgression. If the lizard is punishing the boy we, as viewers, wonder what the young man was doing before this small and unassuming lizard decided to sink its teeth into his flesh.

The painting as a vanitas

'Boy bitten by a Lizard' has also been interpreted as a ' vanitas', a still life painting intended to warn the viewer to be watchful of traits like pride or hubris. Vanitas paintings depict worldly pleasures such as fruit and flowers - sometimes with early signs of decay, sometimes alongside a human skull - to convey the transience of life. These paintings are designed to encourage humility in the viewer by reminding them of their own mortality. Indeed, where there is youth, there is eventual age, and where there is life, there is certain death.

In 'Boy bitten by a Lizard', the boy is not viewing a vanitas painting but participating in one. There is a slight streak of incredulity in the boy's face, as if he is being taught a lesson that has dampened his youthful pride.

The painting as an insult or a lesson?

The finger the lizard bites has also been commented on - the digitus impudicus. While the middle finger is a gesture people have been using to insult one another since ancient Greece, here it is not the boy doing the insulting, but the lizard insulting the boy. As viewers we might ask, is the lizard's bite an insult or a lesson? Or might it be that the young man interprets the bite as an insult, but it is, in fact, a lesson?

The painting as a temptation

In the act of recoiling, the youth's shoulder has been exposed. In the 1970s, art historians began remarking on the distinct homoeroticism in the way Caravaggio has depicted the boy. Even in this moment of pain, he has full, parted lips, rosy cheeks, and a rose tucked behind his ear - his bare, muscular shoulder conveniently and prominently on show. This is a moment that 'shouldn't' be erotic, but the sensuality in the young man's reaction cannot be denied.

While the young man in this painting has been caught unaware, there are other young men that Caravaggio painted who are very much aware of, and in possession of, their sensuality. 'Boy bitten by a Lizard' was painted in the 1590s, in Caravaggio's early career.

During this decade, he painted numerous sensual young men. In 'Boy with a Basket of Fruit' (about 1595, Galleria Borghese) the young man offers the viewer a bounty of fruit. His expression, however, makes us wonder whether this is the only thing on offer. Indeed, this young man is as appealing as the basket of fruit he carries. Even Caravaggio's self portrait, 'Young Sick Bacchus' (between 1593 and 1594, Galleria Borghese) has a strange, coy, erotic charge to it, as if Bacchus were soliciting the viewer. Even in this moment of sickness, he curls his bicep and looks back at the viewer from behind a muscular shoulder.

The painting as a self portrait

Biographical records tell us that in his early career, Caravaggio often painted portraits of himself using a mirror. It has been suggested that 'Boy bitten by a Lizard' may be a self portrait. The young man's eyes appear to be fixed on something. Might this be his own reflection? In which case, might he be witnessing his own reaction, just as we as viewers witness his reaction? Either way, there is a look of revelation on his face, as if, whatever the lizard bite may mean, the young man is learning its meaning.

This is a moment of vulnerability that Caravaggio has allowed us, the viewer, to be privy to. The lizard is a small and seemingly harmless creature, but it delivers an almighty shock that leaves the boy open and exposed - and open to interpretation.

While these different interpretations speak to Caravaggio's ability to captivate the viewer, they also speak to our own desire to look for meaning. Art historians have been somewhat wary of this impulse. The 20th-century art historian, Ernst Gombrich, for instance, states that 'the discoveries of psychoanalysis have certainly contributed to the habit of finding so many "levels of meaning" in any given work', but that this approach tends to be confused and conflated with the reasons why the artwork was created in the first place.

Whether there was an intentional message behind 'Boy bitten by a Lizard' or not, the narrative element of the painting inevitably makes us dwell on the unknown series of events that triggered the lizard's bite. Whether this effect - this intrigue - was intentional or not, this is a painting full of ambiguous and transgressive potential. Such ambiguity and intrigue may, or may not, have been the point.

Holly James Johnston is a writer, presenter, and performer, currently reading for a DPhil in English at the University of Oxford.

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Picture of the month: June 2025 | Picture of the month | National Gallery, London

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Through a real-life recreation of Caravaggio's 'Boy bitten by a Lizard', writer and performer Holly James Johnston explores some of the different interpretations this intriguing painting has inspired

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Cath Riley is an artist and illustrator from the UK. She creates highly detailed and hyper-realistic large-scale drawings of natural forms and people. Riley’s monochromatic, hand-drawn artwor…

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The Artistic Inspiration Behind 10 Iconic Paintings

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The Artistic Inspiration Behind 10 Iconic Paintings

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The Artistic Inspiration Behind 10 Iconic Paintings | TheCollector

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Every exceptional masterwork originates from a wellspring of creativity. Here’s how renowned artists discovered their artistic inspiration for iconic paintings.

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The Evolution & History of Portraiture in Art

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The Evolution & History of Portraiture in Art

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The Evolution & History of Portraiture in Art - Eden Gallery - Eden House of Art

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Explore the evolution of portraiture at Eden Gallery. Discover how this art form has transformed from classical paintings to digital masterpieces.

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The technique was discovered accidentally by Man Ray and Lee Miller and quickly adopted by Man Ray as a means to 'escape from banality'. He often applied the technique to photographs of female nudes, using the halo-like outlines around forms and areas of partially reversed tonality to emphasise the contours of the body.

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The technique was discovered accidentally by Man Ray and Lee Miller and quickly adopted by Man Ray as a means to 'escape from banality'. He often applied the technique to photographs of female nudes, using the halo-like outlines around forms and areas of partially reversed tonality to emphasise the contours of the body.

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A photograph can be either a positive or negative image. Most photographs are created using a camera, which uses a lens to focus an object's visible wavelengths (the light reflected or emitted from it) into a reproduction on a light-sensitive surface of what the human eye would see.

The word photograph was coined in 1839 by Sir John Herschel and is based on the Greek word 'phos', meaning 'light', and 'graphê', meaning 'drawing' - so 'drawing with light.

Types of photography: Non-digital vs. digital

Non-digital photographs are produced using a two-step chemical process: light-sensitive film captures a negative image (colors and lights/darks are inverted) from which a positive image can be made by transferring the negative onto photographic paper (printing).

The advent of digital photography has led to the rise of digital prints. These prints are created from stored graphic formats such as JPEG, TIFF, and RAW. These can then be printed out using printers including inkjet printers, dye-sublimation printer, laser printers, and thermal printers. Inkjet prints are sometimes called 'giclée' prints.

Photography through time

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Tate glossary definition for photography: The process or practice of creating a photograph - an image produced by the action of light on a light-sensitive material

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We've created an A-Z guide because as modernist photographer László Moholy-Nagy once wrote; 'knowledge of photography is just as important as that of the alphabet'.

Though invented in the 1830s, it wasn't until the 1920s that photography came into its own as an artistic medium. Photographers began to embrace its social, political and aesthetic potential, experimenting with light, perspective and developing, as well as new subjects and abstraction. Coupled with movements in painting, sculpture and architecture, these works became known as 'modernist photography'.

A is for Alfred Stieglitz

Photographer, art dealer and publisher, Alfred Stieglitz is credited as one of the leaders of American modern photography in the early twentieth century. Revolutionary in his portrayal of still life and technical mastery of tone, Stieglitz called for photography's acceptance as an art form, as well as introducing avant-garde European artists such as Pablo Picasso, Constantin Brâncuși and Francis Picabia to America's art scene. Influenced by new developments in art, Stieglitz moved away from a more decorative, soft-edged 'pictorialist' style. His work The Steerage 1907, with its sharp focus and striking angles is often considered as a benchmark for the beginnings of modernist photography.

B is for Bauhaus

The Bauhaus was one of the most influential art and design schools in the twentieth century, a seedbed of nearly all the art forms we now think of as modernist. The Bauhaus existed in three cities: Weimar 1919-1925, Dessau 1925-1932 and Berlin 1932-1933, where it closed due to pressure from the Nazis. Its aim was to bring art back into contact with everyday life, so design and craft were emphasised as much as fine art.

The Bauhaus embraced new technologies. This was particularly evident in the photography department, where the celebrated artists László Moholy-Nagy and Walter Peterhans encouraged students to use their cameras to imagine new worlds and focus on experimentation such as close-ups and photomontage. As Moholy-Nagy stated 'everyone is equal before the machine ... there is no tradition in technology, no class-consciousness'.

C is for Camera Work

Published by Alfred Stieglitz from 1903 to 1917, the photographic journal Camera Work featured some of the most important modernist photographers of the early twentieth century. Stating that he wanted to create 'the best and most sumptuous of photographic publications', Stieglitz published the journal with the aim of promoting photography as an art form in its own right. The final issue celebrated photography as the 'first and only important contribution thus far of science to the arts'.

D is for Dora Maar

Dora Maar was a twentieth century photographer and painter. She worked across art genres and techniques including photomontage, darkroom experiments and abstract landscape paintings. During the 1930s, she built a successful career as a photographer in fashion and advertising, and travelled to Europe to document harsh social conditions. Her surrealist photographs, collages and photomontages made her one of the few photographers to be included in surrealist exhibitions. Her political beliefs had brought her close to the movement.

In late 1935 or early 1936, Maar met Pablo Picasso. Their relationship had a huge effect on both their careers. Maar documented the creation of Picasso's most political work, Guernica 1937, encouraged his political awareness and educated him in cliché verre, a technique combining photography and printmaking. Picasso painted Maar in numerous portraits, including Weeping Woman 1937 and encouraged her to return to painting.

By 1939 Maar had withdrawn from photography to concentrate on painting. These often reflect her environment. In Paris during the Occupation, she made still lifes with sombre colour palettes. In the south of France, her landscapes became more abstract. Maar returned to the darkroom in her seventies, experimenting with hundreds of photograms (camera-less photographs). Maar died on July 16, 1997, at 89 years old. Throughout her life she created a vast and varied range of work, much of which was only discovered after her death.

E is for Edward Steichen

Alongside Stieglitz, Steichen also pioneered the modernist photography movement.

Following the First World War, Steichen moved away from his previously pictorialist style and began to experiment with various techniques. He adopted a modernist style, incorporating elements of abstraction and a highly defined clarity within his images. These early experimentations helped to redefine and strengthen the appeal of photography.

Throughout the 1920s and 1930s Steichen worked as a fashion photographer for American Vogue and Vanity Fair. His soft-focus portraits of celebrities including, Gloria Swanson and Clara Bow, captured a romanticised vision of Hollywood; a mode still used today. Described by Vanity Fair 's editor Frank Crowninshield as one of the 'world's greatest living portrait photographers', Steichen became the world's highest paid lens-based artist.

F is for false cameras

Mounting a false brass lens to the side of his camera, American photographer Paul Strand would photograph his subjects using a second working lens hidden under his arm. Known as the candid camera technique, this allowed him to capture people without their knowledge. As the photographer describes, he wanted to make 'portraits of people the way you see them in New York parks - sitting around, not posing, not conscious of being photographed'.

From Jewish patriarchs to Irish washerwomen, Strand's street photography offered a drastic alternative to posed and formal studio portraits.

G is for Group f.64

Founded in the 1930s, Group f.64 was a group of eleven photographers, including Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham and Edward Weston, who were united by their desire to photograph life as it really is. Characterised by a clear, sharp-focus aesthetic, their style was at odds with the romantic methods of manipulating images during or after printing, fashionable at the time. Instead they focused on accurately exposed images of natural forms and found objects.

As cameras became more sophisticated, different effects could be achieved quite simply. By closing the aperture on the lens (like the iris of an eye), the focus of a picture was sharpened. The name f.64 refers to the smallest aperture on a camera, used by the group because it provided the greatest depth of field, allowing for much of the photograph to be in sharp focus. Perhaps the overarching vision of the group was their belief in the camera as a passive observer of the world, better able to depict life as it really was because it did not project personal prejudices.

H is for human form

The effects of the First World War saw a dramatic change in attitudes towards the human body. Previously depictions of the human body were largely either for academic study, used as reference points for painters and draughtsmen, or in pictorialist compositions in which the female body was typically highly aestheticised.

This was reflected in artists' and photographers' depictions of the human form. Modernist photographers experimented with cropping and framing a single body part, distorting and accentuating its curves and angles. In 1936, the philosopher Walter Benjamin compared the camera to a surgeon's knife, able to permeate the body by splicing it into fragments. As a result the body was often depersonalised, instead appearing as something unfamiliar, often almost plant or landscape-like.

I is for icons

The 1920s and 1930s saw a close relationship between celebrity portraits and fashion. Modernist photographers including Irving Penn, Man Ray, George Platt Lynes and Edward Steichen, photographed artists, writers, musicians and Hollywood stars including Salvador Dalí, James Joyce, Gertrude Stein and Jean Cocteau. Featuring in magazines such as Vogue, Vanity Fair and Harper's Bazaar, these portraits were instrumental in shaping the celebrity's public image. Rather than focusing on the sitter's occupation and status, the images were innovative in their pose, composition and cropping, as seen with Penn's corner portraits. Presenting well-known figures in unexpected or even abstract ways created iconic images rather than mere likenesses.

J is for juxtaposition

Modernist photographers enjoyed bringing together objects to reveal or create relationships between them. This can be seen in Tina Modotti's Bandolier, Corn and Sickle 1927 or Margaret de Patta's Ice Cube Tray with Marbles and Rice 1939. The result creates jarring or stricking compositions and heightens the texture and surface of each object.

K is for Kertész

Hungarian-born photographer André Kertész is known for his ground-breaking use of experimental camera angles and contributions to photojournalism.

Determined to establish a freelance career, he moved to Paris in 1925, gaining commercial success by publishing his photojournalistic work in magazines and newspapers across Europe. While influenced by the theories of surrealism and dada, he maintained an observational approach to photography, which he used primarily as a medium for documenting everyday urban life.

After being injured in the First World War, Kertész took up swimming while recovering in hospital. It was there that he first noticed the distortions that water creates on the body. Underwater Swimmer 1917 is the first of many distortions that Kertész took throughout his career and is credited by British artist David Hockney as the inspiration for his Californian swimming pool paintings.

L is for Leica

Released in 1925, the Leica camera was one of the ground-breaking technical innovations that expanded the development of photography during this period, revolutionising street photography in particular. It used flexible 35mm film - adapted from cinema film - stored on a roll. With a range of film speeds, it could capture movement and adapt to different lighting conditions, making it the ultimate handheld camera. Cheap, lightweight, and portable, the camera provided the opportunity for people to freely document their own lives. Not only did this see an increase in the popularity of snapshot photography, but also the rise of the amateur photographer.

M is for Man Ray

Man Ray's artistic career spanned painting, sculpture, film, prints and poetry, working in styles influenced by cubism, futurism, dada and surrealism. In 1930 he said that 'painting is dead, finished', and moved towards photography. He is perhaps most recognised for his use of the photographic method, solarisation and using photograms (developing directly onto photographic paper rather than onto film) which he dubbed as ' rayographs'. Creating surreal and experimental work, often of famous figures such as Lee Miller and Dora Maar, Man Ray became a key figure within modernist photography.

N is for New York

During the 1910s, New York was busy with people, carriages, cars and soaring skyscrapers and became the recognised symbol of change and modernity. Rejecting formal Victorian images, modernist photographers embraced crisp lines, abstraction in form and sharp focus, making the changing city the perfect subject. As Stieglitz commented 'my New York is the New York of transition'.

Due to this, the city played a key role in modernist photography. From its radical architecture to its varied population, it inspired many modernist images and served as a creative hub for many of its photographers.

O is for originality

The enemy of photography is convention, the fixed rules 'how to do'. The salvation of photography comes from the experiment
László Moholy-Nagy, c.1940

Modernist photographers sought to challenge the preconception that photography could not rival painting. They highlighted the medium's potential for originality, approaching it with a more experimental attitude and playing with ideas of abstraction. This attitude saw photographers harnessing 'mistakes' such as distortions and double exposures, and physically manipulating the printed image, cutting, marking and recombining photographs to create an often surprising, playful and radical image.

P is for Photo-Secession

Many historians date the beginnings of modernism in photography to the Photo-Secession, a group of American photographers founded by Alfred Stieglitz in 1902. Members included Edward Steichen, Alvin Langdon Coburn, Gertrude Käsebier and Clarence H. White, who all placed great importance on fine photographic printing and used techniques which mirrored paint and pastel. Their main ambition was to position photography as more than a popular pastime or commercial pursuit, and rather as a fine art. The results were exhibited in their New York gallery, The Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession, later known simply as 291.

Q is for quotes

Here are a few of our favourite quotes by modernist photographers:

It has never been my object to record my dreams, just the determination to realise them
Man Ray

The illiterate of the future will be the person ignorant of the use of the camera as well as the pen
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy

Photography is a major force in explaining man to man
Edward Steichen

R is for relationships

As well as formal artistic groups and schools, many informal collaborations thrived during the modernist period. These included both professional and personal relationships. Often the subtleties of these creative networks can be seen within portraits taken by the modernist photographers as different connections emerge. For example, student and teacher (Berenice Abbott and May Ray), muse and artist (Kiki De Montparnasse and Man Ray) and there are many instances of lovers (Edward Weston and Tina Modotti, Alfred Stieglitz and Georgia O'Keeffe, Man Ray and Lee Miller).

S is for Straight Photography

Modernist photography celebrated the camera as an essentially mechanical tool. Critic Sadakichi Hartmann's 1904 'Plea for a Straight Photography' heralded this new approach, rejecting the soft focus and painterly quality of pictorialism and encouraging straightforward images of modern life. Common characteristics of modernist images include clean lines, sharp focus and repetition of form.

T is for technology

After the First World War, technological advances became seen as vehicles of progress and change, to put the horrors of the 1910s behind them. Photography's association with technology and science meant that it appealed to avant-garde artists wishing to break with convention and explore modern life.

Developments in camera technology during this period also enabled photographers to capture movement. Previously, motion had only been suggested by the blurring effect of a long exposure or presented through series of static frames. Thanks to increased shutter speeds and roll film, photographers were able to easily capture the body in action. Figures were no longer forced to hold a pose. Instead they're removed from the studio and shown jumping, running and suspended in mid-air, with a clarity impossible for the naked eye.

The camera should be used for a recording of life, for rendering the very substance and quintessence of the thing itself, whether it be polished steel or palpitating flesh.
Edward Weston, 1924

U is for Umbo

After studying at the Bauhaus, Otto Umbehr took on the artist name of Umbo and moved to Berlin. Focusing on images of the city and its bohemian society, his work quickly became part of Germany's avant-garde photography scene.

In 1928, Umbo became one of the founding members of the first cooperative photojournalism agency, Dephot. The agency was later closed by the Nazi regime. In 1943, Umbo's Berlin archive, containing between 50,000-60,000 negatives, was destroyed in a bombing. Very few of his photographs from the period survive today.

V is for viewpoints

Increased availability of the handheld camera in the 1920s enabled modernist photographers to explore viewpoints that flattened space and emphasised shape, tone, highlights and shadows. Championing what they referred to as 'bird's eye' and 'worm's eye' views, they experimented with angles and perspectives to create a distorted reality.

Do you understand now that the most interesting viewpoints for modern photography are from above down and from below up, and any others rather than belly-button level?
Aleksandr Rodchenko, 1928

W is for Walker Evans

American photographer Walker Evans was instrumental in establishing the American documentary photographic tradition. Working alongside photographers Dorothea Lange and Arthur Rothstein, among others, his depictions of rural and small-town life not only chronicled the realities of the Great Depression, but also positioned him as a key documentarian of the period. His photographs appeared in multiple publications, and in 1938 the Museum of Modern Art, New York, held a retrospective of his work: American Photographs.

X is for x-ray-like images

One of the darkroom processes practised by modernist photographers was the photogram. The process dates back to the development of 'photogenic drawing' by William Henry Fox Talbot in 1834. The technique involves placing objects onto the surface of a light-sensitive material, normally paper or fabric, and exposing it to light, revealing a negative representation of the object to create an x-ray-like image.

As attention shifted to lens-based techniques, the process fell out of fashion. However the beginning of the twentieth century saw a resurgence in its popularity and modernist artists repackaging the process under various names. Christian Schad's work became known as 'schadographs', Man Ray coined the term 'rayograph' and László Moholy-Nagy adopted 'photogram'. Simple to produce, this pared-back approach to photography had radical results.

Y is for Yamawaki

Born in Nagasaki, Japan, Iwao Yamawaki studied architecture at the Tokyo School of Arts, after which he joined a construction company. At the same time he began experimenting with a 35mm camera. In 1930 he interrupted his architectural career and enrolled at the Bauhaus in Dessau, Germany, where he concentrated on photography. He engaged in techniques and processes promoted by László Moholy-Nagy such as combination printing, photograms and diverse viewpoints. In his travels throughout Europe, he documented details of modernist architecture and design. Although he returned to architecture once back in Tokyo, he continued to spread the Bauhaus philosophy as a teacher and through articles and exhibitions.

Z is for zoooooooooom

From cropping and zooming, to distortion and framing, modernist photography saw a radical shift in how we capture the world around us. Its lasting effects and spirit can be seen within the works of many contemporary photographers.

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A-Z of modernist photography. Discover 26 things you need to know about this period of photography

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Photographic portraiture: the artist, the sitter and the gaze

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Photographic portraiture: the artist, the sitter and the gaze

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Photographic portraiture: the artist, the sitter and the gaze - National Portrait Gallery

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Explore the ‘gaze’ in photographic portraits and analyse what it tells us about the sitter’s identity and the relationship between artist, sitter and viewer.

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Artist in focus: Olivia Rose - National Portrait Gallery

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Artist Olivia Rose reveals how she achieves authenticity in her portrait photography, why being called an artist is scary, and what makes her happy in her art.

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Photographic portraiture: props and staging

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Photographic portraiture: props and staging

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Photographic portraiture: props and staging - National Portrait Gallery

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Explore a range of portraits and analyse how photographers use props, set a scene or stage a portrait to construct a particular representation of identity.

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5 Ideas To Level Up Your Photography Skills

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5 Ideas To Level Up Your Photography Skills

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The School of Photography - Courses, Tutorials & Books

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5 Ideas To Level Up Your Photography Skills — The School of Photography - Courses, Tutorials & Books

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So, you’re keen to learn this beautiful art of photography, but what can you do to practice those photography skills? You need a challenge, and a focus. In this blog I’m going to give you five ideas to push your skills forward and make your photography great. Within those five ideas, I’m also going

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Until the mid-twentieth century, documentary photography was a vital way of bearing witness to world events: from shoot-from-the-hip photographs of the Spanish Civil War by Robert Capa to the considered portraits of poor farmers by Dorothea Lange.

social documentary photography

During this period the tradition of documentary photography was reinvented. Artists began to see the camera as a tool for social change, using it to shed light on injustice, inequality and the sidelined aspects of society. However, social documentary photography is often a subjective art and not all photographers in this category intend their images to aid the bettering of society.

Lisette Model's close-up views of people on the streets of Paris, New York and the French Riviera were often taken without the subjects' awareness or permission. From 1949 onwards, Robert Frank started to take pictures which reflected his search for artistic freedom, shooting stories which revolutionised the expressive potential of the medium.

Contemporary artists

With the rise of television and digital technology there was less demand for published photography and it began to go into decline but has since found a new audience in art galleries and museums. Putting these works in a gallery setting places the work at the centre of a debate surrounding the power of photography and the photographer's motivations. Their work raises questions of the documentary role of the photograph today and offers alternative ways of seeing, recording and understanding the events and situations that shape the world in which we live.

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Until the mid-twentieth century, documentary photography was a vital way of bearing witness to world events: from shoot-from-the-hip photographs of the Spanish Civil War by Robert Capa to the considered portraits of poor farmers by Dorothea Lange. During this period the tradition of documentary photography was reinvented.

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"Riveting, rapturous exploration" (The Guardian) - the first UK retrospective of one of the world's most innovative and influential artists and street photographers.

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How Photography Pioneered a New Understanding of Art

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How Photography Pioneered a New Understanding of Art

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The earliest widely available photographic process was made public in 1839 by Louis Daguerre, creator of the Daguerreotype. The popularization of photography caused a great stir in the art world and led to significant changes in how art was perceived. Since photography could depict the world more accurately than painting, the latter had to reinvent itself. For this reason, the focus of painters shifted from representing reality to portraying emotions and impressions. Photography can, for this reason, be seen as a great drive for the reinvention of painting that occurred in the late 19th and throughout the 20th century.

When and How Did Photography First Appear?

The first successful photographic process, the Daguerreotype, was created in 1837 by Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre. Daguerre had previously worked as a professional scene painter at a theater. For this reason, he already knew the camera obscura, a small, darkened room with a tiny hole or lens which allowed an image from the outside through. Daguerre took inspiration from this process in order to create the world's first photographic camera.

The camera obscura had already been used for centuries and allowed the reflection of images from the outside world on a flat surface. Until Daguerre, the main difficulty had been to engrave the image produced without having to draw over it on a piece of paper. Even after other inventors in the 19th century managed to transfer the image onto a piece of copper, the image quickly disappeared when exposed to light. Before Daguerre, it was impossible for a photograph to leave the darkroom in which it was produced.

However, Daguerre didn't engrave the images on paper but rather on silver-coated copper plates. This invention was announced to the public by a friend, Dominique François Jean Arago, in 1839. From there on, this new process spread throughout the world. In late 1839, daguerreotypes began being produced in several different industrialized nations. Due to how quickly it spread, this new invention was quickly perfected by several manufacturers.

It was in the United Kingdom in the early 1840s that the first European photography studios appeared. Revelation times decreased significantly, from Daguerre's thirty minutes to only twenty seconds in most studios. In the late 1880s, George Eastman created the first film rolls. From there on, photographers didn't need to carry silver-coated copper plates around, and photography became cheaper and more accessible.

Reception of Photography: The Democratization of Art

Photography had a significant impact in 19th-century society and its reception within artistic circles varied. While some welcomed photography and used it as an aid for their artistic production, others criticized this invention and refused to consider it as worthwhile for artists, as did Gustave Courbet.

Regardless of the differing receptions of photography, this invention revolutionized 19th-century European societies. For the first time, art had become affordable not only for the higher classes but also for the lower ones. Middle-class and lower-class families could have their portraits done almost instantly at a photography studio for relatively affordable prices.

It can be said that there was, for the first time, a democratization of art and image. While some reacted positively to this and the accessibility of art throughout society, others saw it as a banalization of artistic creation. Many were critical of photography and saw it only as an industrial imitation of art for commercial purposes.

Art Before the Advent of Photography

Despite their variations, the artistic movements in Europe before the 19th century had always had realism as their focus. Their change and variation manifested primarily in thematic change (what was painted) or technique, but realistic representation had always been valued in all of them.

At the time of the invention and spreading of photography, the leading art movements in Europe were Romanticism and Neoclassicism. The first had already introduced a shift in the artistic world by emphasizing the artist's expression.

In Romanticist painting, there were many elements that did not belong to reality (supernatural elements, for example) but were nevertheless represented realistically.

In Neoclassical painting, there was a revival of the representation of mythological figures and scenes. As beautifully and harmoniously as possible, these were always represented in great detail and accuracy. Even if some artists didn't fall within these artistic movements, they still painted realistically. Whether it was human subjects, nature, or mythological figures, what European paintings at the time had in common was their aim at representing images as accurately and in as much detail as possible.

Impressionism: An Art Movement Shaped by Photography

Painters who witnessed the advent of photography developed a different perception of reality and images than their predecessors. These artists understood that reality was transient and that each moment was fleeting and limited. The nature of reality, these painters realized, was to be in constant movement.

For this reason, the artistic movement of Impressionism was the first to deviate from the realistic norm in European art. The artists of Impressionism accepted that photography was the best for capturing fixed images and that they could not outdo it. For this reason, impressionists explored other dimensions of painting, such as color, light, and movement. This style made it clear that painting was not meant to compete with photography, but rather to complement it, to represent that which photography couldn't.

Impressionist painters, instead of accurately representing reality in detail, focus on the impression of reality and attempt to convey movement in their paintings. Impressionist paintings represent reality as perceived by the human eye: fleeting and transient, sometimes unclear or blurred. At first, these somewhat blurred representations of reality were criticized as low-quality or unfinished paintings, but in time they came to be appreciated.

From this time on, it became widely accepted that painting could not compete with photography in accurately representing reality. This realization, in a way, released painting from the shackles of realism and opened the door for a shift in artistic circles. Instead of valuing realism, artists began focusing on expressing emotions, impressions, and all that which is part of the human experience. In many ways, Impressionism created a bridge between traditional art, which had realism at its core, and modernist art, which distanced itself from an accurate representation of reality.

The Modernist Art Movement: A New Conception of Art

By the beginning of the 20th century, it was clear that photography had come to stay. Not only that but there was another brand-new medium for representing reality: film. After an 1895 film projection in Paris by the Lumière brothers, this new medium was quickly improved and gained significant popularity. Representing reality accurately was no longer a necessary task for painters. For this reason, Impressionism was only the first of a series of artistic movements which strayed away from realism.

During the first half of the 20th century, there were multiple movements within Modernism that transformed the art world. The first was Fauvism, which represented real scenes and subjects using bright colors which usually did not correspond with reality. Fauvists used thick brushstrokes, taking inspiration from Post-Impressionist painters such as Vincent van Gogh. The foremost name in Fauvism was Henri Matisse. When asked what the color of the lady's dress in his famous painting Woman with a Hat was, he allegedly replied: " Black, obviously."

One of the earliest movements within the Modernist current was Expressionism, which had its origins in Van Gogh and Edvard Munch, but was significantly developed a few decades later through the German group Die Brücke ( The Bridge). In Expressionism, the focus is not to represent the outward reality accurately, but the inward reality, feelings and emotions. Expressionist artists used vibrant colors and unusually thick brush strokes, and the resultant paintings were extremely dense and intense, conveying clear emotions and environments.

Particularly during the years following World War I, Expressionist paintings become particularly grotesque and dark. By focusing on emotions in the representation of reality, Expressionists could paint a more accurate and critical picture of society. In many ways, these paintings could show what photography could not, namely the artists' feelings surrounding the reality represented.

Probably one of the most famous movements within Modernism is Cubism. This movement revolutionized the concept of perspective and rejected the representation of three-dimensional objects. Instead of using typical modeling and perspective techniques, Cubists, such as Picasso or Braque, represented the objects as two-dimensional, often trying to include different perspectives of a single object at a time. By exploring perspective in such a way, Cubism, like other Modernist art movements, goes beyond what photography can do. Sometimes, the objects represented stray so far from reality that it is extremely difficult to understand what they are. Later, Cubism evolved to become more accessible and easier to understand, as seen on Picasso's most famous paintings, such as Guernica.

Around 1920 began one of the most important movements within Modernism: Surrealism. Surrealists pick up where the Dadaists left off. Though fruitful in its first years, the Dadaist movement quickly lost itself in its own absurdism and was abandoned by many artists. Surrealism, despite enigmatic and absurd in its own way, is not at all devoid of meaning. Quite on the contrary, it attempts to demonstrate the overlapping of psychological processes in the human mind that cause dreams and imagination.

In Surrealist painting, it is not the physical reality that is represented, but the dream and unconscious reality. As in other Modernist art movements, Surrealism is complementary to photography because it represents something well beyond its reach: the human mind and the dream world. By breaking free of the shackles of reality, Surrealist painters portray our minds and dreams in a revolutionary way.

How Modernist Painting Influenced Photography

Despite not being created with artistic purposes in mind, photography was quickly explored by artists. First, photography was used as an aid for painting or other traditional art forms. Later, some artists began exploring the combination of photography, painting, and other mediums, thus creating new art forms, such as photomontage. One of the foremost artists in this new artistic medium was Hannah Höch, an artist of the Weimar Republic, who created famous examples of photomontage.

It took some time and controversy for photography to be considered a fine art form. Many critics, well into the 20th century, still refused to accept photography as anything more than an industrial mechanism that imitated reality but had little artistic value on its own. However, throughout the 20th century, photography began being recognized as an art form, and photographers created innovative ways to express themselves through it.

Modernism also significantly influenced photography and its alternative representations of reality and human emotion. During the 20th century, photographers also explored experimental and abstract photography. Despite still representing reality, these types of photography explore shapes, colors, and perspectives without striving to accurately represent a given scene or object.

How Photography Changed Our Perception of Art: An Overview

The 1837 invention of the Daguerreotype impacted society and the artistic world that Daguerre could not have foreseen. By surpassing painting in its ability to represent reality, photography, in a way, released painting from the need to be realistic. Photography also allowed for more widespread access to art and portraits, which were in high demand in 19th-century society.

Impressionism was the first movement to be shaped by photography and stray from the realism that was the norm in European art. This movement acted as a bridge between previous movements and Modernism. In the various artistic movements within Modernism, many artists explored countless new ways to express themselves. Artists began focusing on the human experience and different ways to perceive reality and created revolutionary works. Photography followed the tendency towards subjectivity and abstraction, which contributed to its recognition as an art form of its own.

Nowadays, art is understood not only as a faithful representation of reality but as something which provokes thought and emotion. Many viewers are interested in the meanings and feelings an artwork conveys or represents or the social criticism it contains. Realism, although still valued by some, has lost its place as a priority within artistic circles and by artists themselves. This is especially clear when we think about art movements that have distanced themselves from reality, such as Abstract Expressionism.

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How Photography Pioneered a New Understanding of Art

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The advent of photography significantly changed how art was perceived and gave way to new artistic movements. These movements transformed the way we think about art.

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Art explainer: expressing identity through portraiture

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Art explainer: expressing identity through portraiture

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Art explainer: expressing identity through portraiture - National Portrait Gallery

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Look at how artists express identity through their art by exploring a range of portraits, old and new, from the National Portrait Gallery’s Collection.

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Identity through portraiture: cultural identity

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Identity through portraiture: cultural identity

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Learning objectives

Explore how artists convey cultural identity through a range of media and techniques.

Develop portrait analysis, visual literacy and critical thinking skills.

means the ideas, customs and social behaviour of a particular group of people or society. For example, the food we eat, the clothes we wear, our language, religion, rituals and family relationships are all part of our culture. Culture is often an important part of childhood and family life.

Think about your own identity. What elements are most special to you? These could be anything - a friend, family member, hobby, food, place or item of clothing.

Fold a sheet of plain A4 paper in half and then fold it in half again. Open it up. You should have four sections.

Make a simple, small drawing or yourself in the middle of the page where the folds meet.

Now draw four things that are special to you - that have influenced your life and helped shape your identity - one in each section.

First impressions

Look closely at these portraits. Look at each one for at least a minute. Notice:

the colours the artist has used

the sitter pose Sitter The person in a portrait. 'sPose A particular position in which somebody stands or sits to have their portrait made. and expression on their face

the sitter's clothes

any objects

the composition (how the image is arranged)

and anything else that strikes you about the portrait.

What are your first impressions of the person in each portrait?

What is the overall mood of the portrait?

What do you think each the artist is trying to say about the sitter and their cultural identity?

Look closer at 'Sadie' (Zadie Smith) by Toyin Ojih Odutola

Zadie Smith

Zadie Smith was born in London in 1975 to a Jamaican mother and an English father. She was given the name 'Sadie' at birth, as in the title of this portrait, but changed her name to 'Zadie' when she was 14.

Toyin Ojih Odutola

'Sadie' (Zadie Smith), by Toyin Ojih Odutola, 2018-2019

What do Zadie Smith's pose, expression and clothes tell us about her?

Toyin Ojih Odutola has drawn Zadie Smith with her legs crossed and arms folded. She looks relaxed and confident.

Her head is tilted, and she looks out at the artist, and at us, in a warm friendly way.

The portrait seems to invite us, the viewers, in so that we feel as if we are part of the conversation.

Zadie Smith's red cape and gold boots make her look heroic (like a super-hero!). Ojih Odutola is a fan of Smith and wanted to show her as a strong, accomplished, brilliant woman.

What does her choice of hairstyle reveal?

Smith wore a headwrap for the sitting, but she later sent Ojih Odutola a photograph of herself with her afro hairstyle.

It was the first drawn or painted portrait in the National Portrait Gallery of a woman with an Afro hairstyle.

What other clues has the artist included in the portrait to reference Smith's cultural identity?

The map is of Brent in northwest London, where she grew up.

Ojih Odutola has used palm leaves to symbolise Jamaica where Zadie Smith's mother is from. They also link her to her mother's ancestry, back through the generations to West Africa.

What process did Toyin Ojih Odutola use to create the portrait?

Ojih Odutola worked from a photograph taken on her iPhone during a sitting with Zadie Smith (while the two listened to music by the singer, Solange Knowles). Smith doesn't like having her photograph taken but remembers the session as 'just a conversation: an exchange of energy'.

As Zadie Smith said in an interview, the portrait reveals to the viewer 'a whole world which you are being asked to recognise as significant'.

What media and techniques has the artist used and how do they help show Smith's character and identity?

She has used fluid lines and shapes to suggest the folds of Smith's cloak and trousers. The pattern created by the folds of her cloak and white top seem to echo the shapes of the palm leaves behind her, perhaps emphasising that her Jamaican roots are very much a part of who she is.

How has Ojih Odutola used composition in the portrait?

Smith is shown as comfortable within the space and 'owning it'. The space also seems to make room for us, the viewer. We are invited to be part of the space and join in the conversation.

Look closer at Yinka Shonibare by Sal Idriss

Yinka Shonibare CBE RA

Sal Idriss

Sal Idriss was born in Kumasi, Ghana, and came to England in 1985. He has worked as a professional photographer in London since 1995. He has photographed many significant and inspiring sitters in the public eye including artist and film-maker Isaac Julien, politician David Lammy, actor Sophie Okonedo and writer Bernadine Evaristo.

Yinka Shonibare CBE RA, by Sal Idriss, 2006

What do Yinka Shonibare's pose and expression tell us about him?

The photograph shows Shonibare sitting on a chair and turning to smile at us in a friendly way.

He seems at ease with the photographer and with having his photograph taken.

How has the artist, Sal Idriss, used techniques such as composition and lighting in the portrait?

Sal Idriss has photographed Shonibare close-up. He is evenly lit and his features are clear.

This means that we immediately engage with his face and his smile. (It is almost as if we are chatting to him and sharing a joke.)

The space he sits in is shallow with the background cut off by the brightly coloured, patterned fabric behind him.

How does the portrait reference both Shonibare's Nigerian heritage and his British home?

Shonibare is wearing a traditionally European-style formal jacket. Its pin-stripe pattern has been popular in Britain since the late 1800s.

Yinka Shonibare explores cultural identity in his art. How does the portrait reflect this?

By using this fabric in his art, Shonibare suggests that the things people use to identify a culture aren't always what they seem, and that cultural identity is often complex.

Look closer at Malala Yousafzai by Shirin Neshat

Malala Yousafzai

Shirin Neshat

Malala Yousafzai, by Shirin Neshat, 2018

What do Malala Yousafzai's pose and expression tell us about her?

Malala is shown facing forward looking straight at the camera and at us.

Her gaze is steady and warm. She isn't smiling but looks relaxed and calm. We have the impression of a confident young woman.

What do Malala Yousafzai's clothes suggest about her identity?

Malala wears a , a head covering worn by some Muslim women. It reflects the fact that she is a practicing Muslim and that this is an important part of her .

Islamic head coverings come in many forms, but a hijab is usually a piece of cloth wrapped around the head and neck, covering the hair but leaving the face visible.

How does the artist's use of composition in the portrait?

Malala is shown close-up, and the composition is cropped so that only her head and shoulders are in the portrait.

How has the artist used lighting and shadow?

She is lit slightly from one side, so although her features are clear, there is shadow down the left-hand side of her face.

They also add to the dramatic quality of the portrait.

What do you think is the significance of the overlaid text? Do you recognise the language? Does it cover her whole face?

The ink hand-written text is a poem, Malala II, by Rahman Shah Sayel. It was written in 2011 and is in Pashto, a language spoken mainly in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Both Sayel and Malala speak Pashto. Malala met Sayel when she was a young girl.

The poem draws connections between Malala of Maiwand, the Afghan national folk hero, and Malala, praising them both. One line reads: 'You might have seen the wreckage of your country, but this Malala II is fit and proper enough to find a solution for compensating for that wreckage'.

Notice the eyes have been left clear of writing in the portrait. This perhaps symbolises her clear-sightedness and vision for the future. It also makes us aware of her fearless gaze and invites us to engage with her and with the issues that she feels strongly about.

Compare and contrast two portraits

Shirin Neshat took a series of photographs of Malala Yousafzai before selecting these two for the National Portrait Gallery Collection.

What are your first thoughts on seeing the two portraits together? How are they similar and how are they different?

What is the mood or atmosphere of each portrait?

How do you think Neshat wants us to respond to the different portraits?

How has Neshat used composition (and cropping of the image), lighting, props and placement of the texts in each portrait?

In what ways might this change how Malala appears and how we see her in relation to her cultural identity?

Reflecting on cultural identity

Think about the portraits you have looked at in this resource.

Have your first impressions of each sitter changed? Why?

In what ways have the artists told you more about the sitters than simply 'what they look like'?

Do you think cultural identity is an important part of who we are? Why?

If you were creating a portrait of someone you know, how would you tell their story? What would you include in the portrait to reflect their cultural identity?

Exploring further

Choose one that interests you.

What techniques and media has the artist used?

How is the portrait composed (arranged)? What does this achieve?

What is the mood or atmosphere of the portrait? How has the artist achieved this (e.g., lighting, expression, pose)?

How has the artist used formal elements such as colour, line, shape, form, tone, texture and space to communicate ideas and meaning?

How has the artist used elements such as props, objects, clothing, background, pose or expression to communicate the sitter's identity?

What do you, personally, think or feel about this portrait? Do you like it? Can you relate to it in any way?

Find out more about the artist and/or the time and place the portrait was made. Does this change your ideas about the portrait?

How might this portrait, or other portraits you have seen in this resource, influence your own work?

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Identity through portraiture: cultural identity

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Explore how artists convey cultural identity through a range of media and techniques. Develop portrait analysis, visual literacy and critical thinking skills. means the ideas, customs and social behaviour of a particular group of people or society. For example, the food we eat, the clothes we wear, our language, religion, rituals and family relationships are all part of our culture.