Pictorialism: 'Struggle,1904' By Robert Demachy

Robert Demachy was a French Pictorial photographer who was best known for his painterly-like quality and intensely manipulated photographic prints. Demachy was prominent in the late 19th century through to the early 20th century. Around this time France and most of Europe had come out of the Long Depression and entered the new era of ‘Belle Epoque’; (The Beautiful Era). After such a dark period of time this new era was characterised by optimism and peace with the discovery of new scientific techniques and technology. In France at this time the arts were flourishing in this new era and Demachy here shows this through his romanticised imagery; The Golden Age.

Demachy’s photographic image named ‘Struggle’ produced in 1904 illustrates the revival of the gum bichromate process. This process allowed the artist to work colour and brushwork into a photographic image, portraying a style which balanced photography with the draftmanship of life drawing. Pictorialist photography thrived on the style of ‘soft’ imagery, creating almost ethereal characters through techniques such as long exposure to create a blur and intentionally leaving the camera out of focus. Demachy’s ‘Struggle’ illustrates this style by working into the image physically and using an orange pigment to evoke sanguine, a reddish chalk often used in life drawing. This image shows the female nude in a highly emotive and atmospheric pose which visually characterises its title, ‘Struggle’. This image is full of movement not only due to the figure but to how Demachy has physically manipulated it by scratching the negative through the process of gum bichromate. Demachy asks the viewer to question the image and its relationship with the title. What is the female figure struggling with? Is it the struggle between the Fine Arts and Photography? Is it a struggle of the female figures own personal mentality? Demachy pushes the viewer to constantly question the image, and to have their own impression. It is an image full of life, atmosphere and beauty, introducing photography as an art form in its own right.