 Experimental digital photograph by Rick Doble |
Blur, in fine art photography, refers to various photographic techniques utilizing blur effects - whether from camera movement, a moving subject, or a deliberate manipulation of focus. While early photography emphasized technical precision and sharpness, photographers since the mid-19th century have adopted blur as an artistic technique.[1] Blur effects were utilized by several major photographic movements includingpictorialism,Italian Futurism, and contemporary photography, to enable the capture of movement and various aesthetic effects.
Different types of blur can be achieved through optical or digital means, each producing distinct visual characteristics.
Depth of field blur, often referred to asbokeh, "is a quality of blur or haze, and it refers to defocused areas in front of or behind a sharp subject, usually formed from defocused points of light."[2]
Gaussian blur is a digital image processing technique that uses a mathematical function based on the Gaussian distribution to soften an image. It produces an even, isotropic blur and is widely used in photo editing, computer graphics, and visual effects to reduce noise or create a sense of depth and focus.
Soft focus is a photographic technique that creates a gentle diffusion of light, reducing contrast and sharpness while preserving edge detail. The effect can be produced optically by using special lenses, filters, or slight defocusing, and has been used extensively in portrait and pictorial photography to create a romantic or ethereal mood. In digital imaging, similar effects can be achieved through selective blurring, such as Gaussian blur or diffusion filters.[3]
Blur techniques in the visual arts preceded their application in photography. In painting traditions prior to the 19th century, blur referred to brush techniques which minimized visible brushwork to express emotions such as "the tenderness and softness of a work," according to its 1676 definition byAndré Félibien.[4]: 4 As noted in the catalogue for the 2023 exhibitionBlur. A Photographic History atMusée de l'Élysée, "Correggio,Adriaen van de Velde, and later,Camille Corot andCharles-François Daubigny are painters representative of blur – and were regularly qualified as such by the critics of their time."[4]: 4
Blur techniques in photography emerged during the mid-19th century as photographers began experimenting with longer exposures and camera movement.Gustave Le Gray'sThe Great Wave, Sète (1857) demonstrates an early artistic application ofmotion blur, where the movement of water was allowed to blur while the horizon line remained sharp.[5]
Peter Henry Emerson played a transitional role in the history of photographic blur. Although he did not aim for blur itself, he rejected the sharply detailed style of earlier photography, using selective focus to attempt to mirror human vision. His work acted as a bridge between the mechanical precision of early photography and the softer, more atmospheric effects favored by later pictorialists.[6]
The critical discussions of blur in mid-19th-century photographic theory addressed both technical considerations and aesthetic theory. Photographer and criticHenri de la Blanchère argued that controlled loss of detail could enhance artistic expression while preserving compositional integrity. Opposing this, photographerAuguste Belloc, maintained that softness compromised technical standards.[1] These foundational debates influenced later photographic movements that adopted blur as an aesthetic tool.
The scientific documentation of motion byÉtienne-Jules Marey andEadweard Muybridge established technical precedents for capturing movement over time through photography. Their sequential imagery contributed to understanding motion in both scientific and artistic contexts, and this in turn provided a conceptual foundation for later movement-based photographic theories.[7]
Thepictorialist movement establishedmotion blur and soft focus as recognized artistic techniques in photography. Active between 1885 and 1915, pictoralist photographers includingAlfred Stieglitz,Edward Steichen,Gertrude Käsebier,Clarence H. White, andAlvin Langdon Coburn employed blur effects to align photography withSymbolist andimpressionist aesthetics.[8][9] The movement's theoretical framework, disseminated throughCamera Work (1903–1917),[9] presented blur as a tool for expressive image-making that distinguished artistic photography from mechanical reproduction.
Approaches to blur varied within the movement. Some practitioners advocated imitating perceptual blur, while others, particularly in theUnited States, used blur techniques to move away from literal representation, attempting to evoke the Symbolist realm of dreams and subjective experience.[4]: 3, 29 Coburn's later abstract experiments extended these concepts into modernist photography.
Italian Futurist photographers employedmotion blur — "the blur produced by the movement of objects while taking pictures"[4]: 14 — as a technique to convey speed, energy, and dynamism, opposing the usual fixity of photography.[10]Anton Giulio Bragaglia, working with his brotherArturo Bragaglia, developedphotodynamism, a method that used long exposures to record sequences of movement within a single frame. Influenced byHenri Bergson's philosophical concepts of duration and motion, this approach aimed to document kinetic energy and temporal flow, distinguishing it from the more static and painterly blur effects favored by Pictorialists. Other Futurist photographers who explored similar techniques include Mario Bellusi and Filippo Masoero.[11]
Experimental approaches to motion blur expanded during the mid-20th century including work byAlexey Brodovitch,Otto Steinert andWilliam Klein.
Brodovitch'sBallet (1945) demonstrated motion blur applied to dance photography, creating movement trails through extended exposure techniques. The book, described as "a milestone in photography," features "soft forms, blurred movement and colors, and an uninterrupted visual sense of motion."[12]
Otto Steinert, associated with the GermanFotoform group andSubjektive Fotografie movement, incorporated blur into experimental photography practices. His theoretical framework emphasized emotional expression over technical precision and straight photography, presentingmotion blur as a tool for subjective interpretation.[13] His 1951 photographBlick vom Arc de Triomphe exemplifies this approach, using blur to transform a city view into a subjective visual experience.[14]
Unusual for its time,William Klein's "photography of the 1950s was grainy, blurry, high-contrast photographs—qualities generally considered defects in the popular photographic community."[15] One striking example is his 1955 gelatin-silver printDance in Brooklyn,New York, which captures a young figure mid-movement with dramatic blur and contrast, exemplifyingKlein's embrace of spontaneity and visual upheaval.[16] In a 2015 interview withAperture,Klein discussed how blur first became part of his visual arsenal: "I thought these hard‑edged geometrical forms… became different and more interesting with blur, which was a photographic plus… blur became part of my arsenal of graphic techniques."[17]
Around the same period asKlein, Japanese photographerDaidō Moriyama began experimenting with photographic blur as part of theare, bure,boke (grainy, blurry, out-of-focus) aesthetic that became a hallmark of theProvoke movement.[18] His images of postwarTokyo used motion blur and defocus to reflect disorientation, alienation, and fleeting perception in the modern city. In works likeStray Dog (1971), Moriyama's use of imperfect focus and dynamic blur helped redefinestreet photography in Japan and influenced generations of photographers globally.[19]
The introduction of digital technology in the early 2000s altered the use of blur in photography, with artists exploring how the technique relates to perception shaped by digital and virtual processes.[20] Contemporary practitioners includeThomas Ruff, whose "unsettling" images incorporate digitally manipulated blur effects,[21] andCatherine Leutenegger, who extends photographic blur into virtual and sculptural space through works such as her lightboxApocalyptic‑Post series (2017), includingFire & Fury, exhibited atPhoto Élysée inLausanne,Switzerland.[22]
Intentional camera movement (ICM) is a contemporary photographic technique in which the camera is deliberately moved during a long exposure to create abstract or impressionistic imagery.[23] While the practice gained broader popularity in the digital era, earlier analog precedents exist.Ernst Haas, particularly in his 1956Pamplona bullfight series,[24] is frequently cited as an early practitioner of ICM, using slow shutter speeds and color film to capture the motion of a bull fight.[25] In more recent decades, photographers such as Erik Malm andChris Friel have expanded ICM beyond abstraction, using it to explore mood, narrative, and emotional resonance within landscape and figurative compositions.[26][27]
From the late 20th century to the present, contemporary photographers have continued to incorporate blur as a formal element in their work. These artists includeFrancesca Woodman, who often used blur in her self-portraits and "challenged the idea that the camera fixes time and space";[28]Michael Kenna, whose hours-long exposures create atmosphere through blur;[29]Uta Barth, who explicitly uses blur as a conceptual device, shifting focus to the periphery;[30] andMichael Wesely, who employs extremely long exposures to record the passage of time, allowing blur to reflect movement and disappearance over months or even years.[31] All of these and others serve as examples of blur's continued use in the vocabulary of photographers today.
Two significant museum exhibitions have examined blur applications in photography. TheMusée de l'Élysée presented an exhibition titledBlur. A Photographic History, exploring various artistic applications of the technique.[32] TheNorton Museum of Art'sBlur / Obscure / Distort: Photography and Perception focused on contemporary works that use motion blur to challenge conventional perceptions of space and time.[33]