Book excerpt: From its earliest days, photography could not escape the pictorial traditions that had gone before it. This book, the first comprehensive study of Pictorialism in Europe, analyses the remarkable diversity of approaches taken by photographers across the continent whose practice was infused with contemporary debate about photography's relationship to art. Written by an international team of art and photography historians, Impressionist Camera examines the ways in which practitioners realized their pictorial vision, from the re-creation of Academic painting in photography to the use of soft focus to lend images an impressionistic quality. Also explored are the cross-currents with photography in America - where Pictorialism went on to flourish - including the seminal work of Alfred Stieglitz.