This month’s column from Sydney Kaemmerlen, Cascadia Art Museum, features pictorial photography created by Seattle Camera Club members in the 1920s and 1930s. Members were among the most exhibited pictorial photographers in the world.
The international popularity of pictorial photography was aided in large part by the Seattle Camera Club (SCC) about 100 years ago. The movement is being brought back into focus with a new exhibition this summer at Cascadia Art Museum.
Pictorialism transformed photography from recording a scene to a tool for artistic interpretation regarded as fine art. The characteristics of this style are often identified by:
- Soft focus to blur sharp details and create a romanticized illusory quality
- Painterly textures and brushwork produced by darkroom techniques
- Altered tonal ranges, such as emphasized midtones to express a mood
- Image manipulation including hand-etching negatives, scratching the image surface or combining negatives for a composite print
- Emotion and abstraction emphasis to express a photographer’s poetic imagery or symbolism
The SCC, specializing in pictorialism, was the first internationally known artists group from Washington state. The group was formed in 1924 by 39 Issei, first-generation Japanese immigrants, with headquarters in Seattle’s International District. The SCC quickly grew in membership and offered artists a platform to make connections and share ideas and techniques. At its height in the late 1920s, SCC members represented some of the most exhibited pictorialist photographers in the world.
Some notable SCC photographers included Dr. Kyo Koike (1878-1947), Frank Asakichi Kunishige (1878-1960), Ella McBride (1862-1965), Hiromu Kira (1898-1991), Yukio Moringa (1888-1968).
The organization formally dissolved in 1930 due to economic pressures of the Great Depression. In the 1940s, the forced incarceration of Japanese Americans disrupted the lives of Issei SCC members and led to the loss of much of their artwork.
“In the early 20th century, Seattle and the Northwest produced several pioneers in the field of International Pictorialism including Myra Albert Wiggins and members of the Seattle Camera Club,” said David F. Martin, curator at Cascadia Art Museum and author of the seminal 2011 publication, Shadows of a Fleeting World: Pictorial Photography and the Seattle Camera Club. Martin has been researching and preserving works by the SCC for over three decades. “Their achievements are still resonating around the world through exhibitions and publications.”
The rare collection on display at Cascadia Art Museum this summer includes nearly 70 original photographs by SCC photographers, many on public display for the first time in decades.
With modern advancements in digital photography and the abundance of digital editing software, the photography style is enjoying a new-age revival. Digital tools can be used to replicate unique photo characteristics, offering today’s photographers a modern approach to traditional techniques.
Submit your pictorial image for a chance to win pictorial photography book
Cascadia Art Museum is hosting a Pictorialism Photography Contest in conjunction with the exhibition this summer, with the following prompt: “What does the Northwest mean to you?”
Most photo-editing software and apps allow you to change an image by boosting midtones, adding textures, converting a color image to black and white, applying stylized filters to mimic brush strokes and reducing digital sharpness.
The second edition of Shadows of a Fleeting World: Pictorial Photography and the Seattle Camera Club will be awarded to the winning photographer. The author, David F. Martin, has assembled over 70 rare, original photographs from various sources. The publication is also available for purchase at the museum’s gift store.
For full contest details and submission instructions, visit: www.cascadiaartmuseum.org/pictorialism-photography-contest
The winner will be announced by Aug. 7, 2026.
About Cascadia Art Museum
Founded in 2015, Cascadia Art Museum preserves and celebrates the legacy of Northwest art from 1870 to 1970. Through exhibitions, publications and educational programming, the museum continues to shape a fuller understanding of the region’s cultural history and the artist who defined it.
Ella McBride’s A Shiley Poppy is the most exhibited piece by an SCC member, displayed over 200 times in the United States and internationally. Credit: Ella McBride (1862-1965), A Shirley Poppy, 1925. Chloride print. Private Collection.
Pictorialist photographers often followed compositional principles of traditional painting. Credit: Frank Asakichi Kunishige (1878-1960), Bettl, circa 1924. Chloride print. Private Collection.
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