Towards the end of the century there was a growing dissatisfaction with the photographic establishment in England and in America. At the turn of the century Stieglitz was the most important photographer in America. In England this led to a mass of resignations from the Photographic Society, and the formation of a group known as the Linked Ring, whilst in America, in 1902, an avant-garde group of photographers led by Stieglitz, also sought to break away from the orthodox approach to photography, and from what they considered was the stale work of fellow photographers. At the beginning of the twentieth...
he objected to retouching or "dodging": ""And what do I call straight photography," one might say, "can you define it?" Well, that"s easy enough. Rely on your camera, on your eye, on your good taste and your knowledge of composition, consider every fluctuation of color, light and shade, study lines and values and space division, patiently wait until the scene or object of your pictured vision reveals itself in its supremest moment of beauty, in short, compose the picture which you intend to take so well that the negative will be absolutely perfect and in need of no... manipulation."