About this artwork

This photograph, exhibited in Paris in 1926, is typical of Hill's pictorialist work. Pictorialism flourished among amateur photographers in Scotland from the 1890s until the Second World War. Using special coatings, photographers changed the appearance of a print to make it look like a charcoal drawing. The detail in this picture is blurred but this softens the image in such a way that the drabness of the boats sitting in the silt becomes more appealing. By working on the print, Hill intended to 'make an appeal to the emotions quite outwith the scope of straight photography'.

Updated before 2020

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Alexander Wilson Hill

Alexander Wilson Hill