About the exhibition
Immerse yourself in bewitching, otherworldly photographs from around the world. See over 200 rare vintage photographic prints up close and discover unusual experiments with darkroom techniques in this exhibition that explores pictorialism – the first international art photography movement.
What is pictorialism?
At its heart, pictorialism was a declaration: photography is more than just taking a picture, it’s a genuine art form.
Beginning in the 1880s, pictorialist photographers worked to create images that were as imaginative, expressive and technically considered as any painting or drawing.
They experimented in the darkroom and the studio, out in the city and in their living rooms, crafting images that are full of beauty, mood and aesthetic impact.
Bonian Luo Drawing Water from a Well 1932 Purchased with funds provided by the Photography Acquisitions Committee 2026 © Luo Bonian Art Foundation and Three Shadows +3 Gallery
In the darkroom
Lionel Wendt [title not known] c.1933-8 Tate Purchased with funds provided by the South Asia Acquisitions Committee 2013
These photographers lived for the darkroom and its chemicals: they experimented with complicated developing and printing processes, manipulated their negatives, used many types of paper, and created prints with unique effects that were very hard to reproduce.
There is a working darkroom within the exhibition, where on certain days you can learn to make your own photographic prints using vintage and environmentally friendly techniques. Book your tickets here.
Don't miss...
1. A photograph that looks like a painting
When photography emerged in the 19th century, painting set the terms. To be taken seriously as artists, photographers knew they had to engage with its legacy, so they borrowed painting’s compositions, moods, subjects and sometimes even the texture of its surfaces.
Born in Boston, Mass., Alvin Langdon Coburn (1882–1966) began taking photographs when he was eight.
He moved to London, learned the photogravure process and set up two hand presses in his home.
Alvin Langdon Coburn Regents Canal. Portfolio: London 1909, 1909 Wilson Centre for Photography © The Universal Order
2. A portrait
Cavendish Morton Lizzie Avery in 'In Dahomey' 1903 National Portrait Gallery (London, UK)
The human face is one of the camera's most beloved subjects.
The pictorialists' challenge was to transform a portrait into something more: an image that showed personality and told a story.
3. A printing process you’ve never heard of
Platinum prints, bromoil prints, carbro, fresson, photogravures... explore the breadth of analogue photography processes, and compare prints using different techniques made from the same negative.
Lee Sow Lim Silver Tree c. 1955 National Gallery of Singapore © Estate of Lee Sow Lim
4. A collaboration with a dancer
Dancers and photographers were a perfect match: modern dance wanted to liberate the body and claim its own place among the arts, and pictorialist photographers provided the images through which new ways of moving – and of seeing the body move – were circulated and understood.
Soichi Sunami Helen Tamaris [dancing as a Bacchante to the music of Louis Gruenberg] circa 1930 Private Collection
Soichi Sunami (1885-1971) was one of the most well-known photographers to work with dancers.
A Japanese-American photographer with ties to the Seattle Camera Club, he moved to New York and opened his own studio, where he collaborated with dancer Martha Graham on a series of portraits.
5. A modern vision
Though pictorialism is often treated as a chapter in Europe and the US that closed in the 1920s, photographers across the world explored its possibilities for decades after. They often moved between pictorialism, realism and modernism, expanding the legacy of this movement.
In Brazil, the São Paulo-based Foto Cine Clube Bandeirante nurtured an open and creative atmosphere among its members and embraced a more modernist aesthetic.
Roberto Marconato Dispute c. 1966 Lent by the Tate Americas Foundation, courtesy of Latin American Acquisitions Committee 2017 © Roberto Marconato
Visit the exhibition
Light and Magic: The Birth of Art Photography runs at Tate Modern from 14 October 2026 – 21 February 2027.