- Home
- Fine Art
- Photography
- Impression of the High Sierras
Or save it to favorites and we'll tell you if this item goes on sale!
- Get the Chairish App
- to view in your space
Impression of the High Sierras
- Get the Chairish App
- to view in your space
Details
Description
"Impression of the High Sierras" a Lithobrome Photograph by Sigismund Blumann (American, 1872-1956). Signed "Sigismund Blumann" lower right. Titled "Impression … more "Impression of the High Sierras" a Lithobrome Photograph by Sigismund Blumann (American, 1872-1956). Signed "Sigismund Blumann" lower right. Titled "Impression of the High Sierras" and signed "Sigismund Blumann" on verso. Unframed. Image size, 10.25"H x 13.25"W. Sigismund Blumann (1872–1956) (figure 1) was a prominent tastemaker in Californian photography during the 1920s and 1930s. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area for his entire career, he edited magazines, wrote books, and made creative photographs. From 1924 to 1933 Blumann edited Camera Craft, the leading West Coast photographic monthly. Subsequently he established his own periodical, Photo Art Monthly, which he published until 1940. In these two magazines — for over fifteen years — Blumann found a large audience of mainstream pictorial photographers. In addition, he wrote five instructional books on photography, providing a substantial amount of technical information for committed picturemakers. During the 1920s, Blumann also made accomplished pictorial photographs of his own, concentrating on landscape work. In August 1924, Blumann was appointed editor of San Francisco’s Camera Craft (begun in 1900) and, at fifty-two years of age, began working in photography full time. He continued most of its regular columns, covering professional photographers, camera clubs, technique, and amateur troubles. Blumann was the magazine’s most prolific author during his nine-year tenure, writing nearly 130 signed articles and, presumably, most of the unsigned ones. The magazine included his monthly editorials, reviews of books and exhibitions, and feature articles on the laws of art, different processes, the difficulty of nude subjects, and pictorialists such as Léonard Misonne and William Mortensen. Blumann paid attention to professional photographers by running profiles on them, covering activities of their national and regional organizations, and addressing specific topics like advertising photography. And he consistently maintained a populist and positive attitude, running monthly competitions and including many of his own poems. Blumann edited his last issue of Camera Craft in August 1933, but within a few months had started up his own periodical, Photo-Art Monthly. With the help of only one assistant, he ran this magazine for the next seven years, carrying a very heavy load of writing and editing. The most notable changes were more attention to "artistic" photography (as suggested by the title), less coverage of professional photography, and increased anti-modernist attitudes. In 1937, Blumann opened a gallery in the magazine’s offices, providing an exhibition venue unique in the country, where both group and one-person shows of about one hundred photographs were presented. Somehow Blumann found the time while he was an editor to write five manuals on photographic technique. Camera Craft published the first one in 1927—his Photographic Workroom Handbook, that went into four editions and sold over 60,000 copies. In the 1930s, he self-published a reworking of this title plus books on enlarging, toning, and photographic greeting cards. Claiming that his calling was as a critic, Blumann downplayed his own ability as a photographer, yet he achieved modest success as a pictorialist. He enjoyed being outdoors with his camera and turned it primarily on the natural environs of Oakland and California’s state parks and national forests. Reproductions of his work appeared in Camera Craft (both before and during his editorship), Photo-Art Monthly, and the American Annual of Photography 1927. Between 1923 and 1932, his pictures were accepted at photographic salons in Amsterdam, Toronto, Rochester, Seattle, and Los Angeles. In 1927, a one-person exhibition of his bromoil prints traveled to camera clubs in Chicago, Akron, Cincinnati, and New York. In addition to bromoil, a process that yields pointillistic images, Blumann utilized such unusual processes as kallitype (Vandyke brown), lithobrome, and pastelograph (the latter two probably his own inventions). In 1933, he was a charter member of the Photographic Society of America and received fellowship status from the Royal Photographic Society (FRPS). Sigismund Blumann’s last known photographic appearance was in the December 1943 issue of Popular Science, for which he wrote an illustrated an article on toning black-and-white prints. less
- Dimensions
- 20ʺW × 1ʺD × 16ʺH
- Art Subjects
- Landscape
- Frame Type
- Unframed
- Period
- 1920s
- Country of Origin
- United States
- Item Type
- Vintage, Antique or Pre-owned
- Materials
- Paper
- Photography
- Silver Gelatin
- Condition
- Good Condition, Original Condition Unaltered, Some Imperfections
- Color
- Black
- Condition Notes
- Excellent - Age toning to mat and minor wear consistent with age and history Excellent - Age toning to mat and minor wear consistent with age and history less
Need more product details?
Standard Returns & Cancellations
Return Policy - All sales are final 48 hours after delivery, unless otherwise specified in the description of the product.
Extended Return for Trade
- Expands return window for trade members to 14 days (12 days more than our standard return policy)
- Trade member to notify Chairish of intent to return within 14 days of item delivery
- Buyer refunded item cost. Buyer pays return shipping cost
- Does not apply to damages that occur post-delivery
Questions about the item?
Related Collections
- Nick Mele Photography
- Neon Photography
- Resin Photography
- Lime Photography
- Cinnamon Photography
- Screen Print Photography
- Tangerine Photography
- Katerina Christina Photography
- Black and White Photos
- Ansel Adams Photography
- Photography in South Bend
- Tribal Photography
- Beaux-Arts Photography
- Auburn Photography
- Richard Silver Photography
- Amber Photography
- French Provincial Photography
- Lead Photography
- Spanish Colonial Photography
Returns
- Does not arrive
- Is broken during transit
- Is entirely different than what you purchased
- Some made-to-order items and a limited selection of other items (noted as non-refundable in the returns and cancellations section of the product description)
-
Orders where Free Local Pickup or Seller Managed Local Delivery were selected:
- Upon inspection, If you decide not to move forward with the purchase, you or your agent must refuse the item at the time of pickup/delivery from the seller
- Once you have taken possession of the item, all sales are final
- International, cross-border returns may require different processes depending on the countries between which the item is shipping to/from, and the buyer is responsible and duties (if applicable, on cross-border orders).
- On approved returns, the buyer is responsible for the full cost of return packing and shipping.
Cancellations
- Prior to shipping or local pickup, buyers may cancel an order for any reason, with the exception of some Made-to-Order items, where supplies have been purchased or work begun on the item.
- Please notify us within 24 hours of purchase if you would like to cancel an order, as prompt cancellation will reduce the likelihood that you will incur return shipping charges.
- Once shipping or pickup has been initiated, the cancellation will be considered a return and you will be responsible for the cost of shipping.
The Chairish Buyer Guarantee
Make an Offer
Have questions about how offers work? Learn more or .