William Mortensen

Title: Pictorial Photography – portfolio with 20 signed original portrait photographs

Artist: William Mortensen

Medium: gelatin silver print sepia-tone photographs

Year: 1935


Give a brief description of the movement, photographer, or term you researched. How are they significant to the history of photography (50-75 words)? William Mortensen was out of touch with the "popular" photography taken in his time. He drew criticism from members of f/64. Ansel Adams even pushed the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona to disregard his work and not archive it. He was made famous during his career as he was a photographer to many stars. At the time there was a purist movement in photography focusing on the "straight," "unadorned, print and a more documentarian style. Since Mortensen's photography illustrated a Gothic and Romantic edge he was routinely pushed away from the top photographers of the day. Mortensen "invented his own texture screams an abrasion tone process,the Metalchrome process and a non-silver pigment process.




Write a short personal reaction to the movement, photographer or term you researched. What is interesting or not interesting about the work (50 – 75 words). His portraits of actresses were well done; all conveying a specific emotion, predicament, or lust. He doesn't seem to use a lot of darks in his photography, but he really captures the nuances in the clothing of his models or stars. His work uses a lot of romanticism. All showing the body in a purely beautiful way. He also created beautiful backgrounds in a lot of his work. To me it would seem hard to replicate nature as he does relying mostly on darkroom work. It's awesome.





Name (please only include if it is ok to publish on blog): Blaine Anderson