The picture is more important than the subject. The picture should get one's attention and hold one's attention.
The pictorialist is concerned with the viewer of the picture rather than with the subject matter. He strives to produce a picture that is of interest to everyone, not just those interested in the subject matter.
The pictorialist is more like a fiction writer than like a historical novelist. Photography, because of its realism, is often used as a medium, but it can be quite manipulated as the results is intended as a work of fiction.
Photography is sometimes thought to portray the subject at a particular instant in time. That is usually the case. A news photograph may indeed portray an event that happened at a specific time, but portrait is hardly ever limited to such a brief time interval. Sometimes a portrait will tell how a person looked at a particular time in their life, such as when they graduated from High School or on their Wedding day. Another type of portrait is intended to show the character of the individual, rather than how they looked at a particular time in their life. To be pictorial, a portrait needs to be about the beauty or character the subject, so that it is of interest even to those who do not know the subject.
Although they often have the same subject matter, Nature Photography and Pictorial Photography take different approaches. Nature photography educates the viewer with a scientifically accurate presentation. Pictorial Photography uses nature to evoke basic human feelings.
The digital medium is ideal for the Pictorialist. It provides the detail and realism of photography, but with complete control over the final results. If you study the history of Photography you will find pictorialists experimenting with a number of so-called control processes the most notable of which is Bromoil Transfer. In this process, the photographer/artist bleaches the photograph and paints it back with a brush containing oil and pigment. Finally, the picture is transferred to watercolor paper. In the digital medium, the photographer/artist can paint on the photograph with a pen tablet and make the final print using pigment inks on watercolor paper. Thus digital has all the advantages of the old control processes and many advantages never dreamed possible.
Some of the pictures shown here are highly manipulated; some are just as they were taken. My hope is that you will enjoy these pictures and perhaps even feel inspired by some of them.