Photo Record
Images
Metadata
Catalog Number |
2015.8.4 |
Photographer |
Petzold, Adolph |
Title |
Landscape |
Object Name |
Print, Photographic |
Description |
Adolph Petzold (Active early 20th century, Philadelphia, PA), "Landscape," early 1900s. Color gum bichromate, 8 7/8 x 6 7/8 inches. Adolph Petzold worked as the chief designer for J. Bromley & Sons, a lace curtain and carpet manufacturer. He was a recreational photographer and member of the Salon Club of America, an group established in 1903 to give photographers the opportunity to have monthly critiques among themselves. Members would circulate their photographs across the country to other members, receiving responses from their peers. The group's overarching goal was to promote the mission and vision of Pictorialism. In 1904 they held their first exhibition at the Metropolitan Camera Club of New York. Here, Petzold's image demonstrates Pictorialist style by capturing the landscape using soft-focus. The image is printed using the gum bichromate process, which creates a painterly, textured surface quality and multi-colored tones by layering pigment in multiple steps of the printing process. Other Pictorialist methods included manipulation of the photographic surface through brush strokes or other means, like burning and dodging during printing; or tinting the final print with colors such as sepia and cyan. The ultimate goal was to create an image that appealed to the viewer's emotions and emphasize the hand of the photographer as artist. In 1904, writing about Petzold's work, the novelist Chas Nordhoff stated, "A Petzold print, aside of subject and composition, is a pleasant thing to handle. The quality of the print, the mounting, the signature, the framing" everything betrays rare taste and excellent workmanship. (Chas Nordhoff "A Gum Worker-Adolph Petzold" The Photographic Times Bulletin, volume 36, January 1, 1904). |