Group f/64

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Group f/64 was a group of photographers espousing a common philosophy. The group was created in 1932 and was the idea of members Willard Van Dyke with his friend Preston Holder, by influence of Paul Strand . The membership is often listed in this broad way:

But the 1932 exhibition announcement for the group at the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum makes clear that Holder, Kanaga, Lavenson, and Brett Weston were "invited" to "display their work with Group f.64" (reproduced on the inside back cover of the Heyman book noted below).

The term f/64 refers to the smallest aperture setting on a large format camera, which secures maximum depth of field, rendering a photograph evenly sharp from foreground to background. Such a small aperture sometimes implies a long exposure and therefore a selection of relatively slow moving or motionless subject matter, such as landscapes and still life, but in the typically bright California light this is less a factor in the subject matter chosen than the sheer size and clumsiness of the cameras, compared to the smaller cameras increasingly used in action and reportage photography in the 1930s.

This corresponds to the ideal of straight photography which the group espoused in response to the pictorialist methods that were still in fashion at the time in California (even though they had long since died away in New York).

Contemporary photographic convention denotes lens apertures with a slash, such as f/22 or f/64, but the precise name of this group uses a dot or period instead, so properly should read "Group f.64" though almost everyone mistakenly uses the slash form, as seen in other parts of this entry.

Group f/64 published the following manifesto:

The name of this Group is derived from a diaphragm number of the photographic lens. It signifies to a large extent the qualities of clearness and definition of the photographic image which is an important element in the work of members of this Group.
The chief object of the Group is to present in frequent shows what it considers the best contemporary photography of the West; in addition to the showing of the work of its members, it will include prints from other photographers who evidence tendencies in their work similar to that of the Group.
Group f/64 is not pretending to cover the entire spectrum of photography or to indicate through its selection of members any deprecating opinion of the photographers who are not included in its shows. There are great number of serious workers in photography whose style and technique does not relate to the metier of the Group.
Group f/64 limits its members and invitational names to those workers who are striving to define photography as an art form by simple and direct presentation through purely photographic methods. The Group will show no work at any time that does not conform to its standards of pure photography. Pure photography is defined as possessing no qualities of technique, composition or idea, derivative of any other art form. The production of the "Pictorialist," on the other hand, indicates a devotion to principles of art which are directly related to painting and the graphic arts.
The members of Group f/64 believe that photography, as an art form, must develop along lines defined by the actualities and limitations of the photographic medium, and must always remain independent of ideological conventions of art and aesthetics that are reminiscent of a period and culture antedating the growth of the medium itself.
The Group will appreciate information regarding any serious work in photography that has escaped its attention, and is favorable towards establishing itself as a Forum of Modern Photography.

[edit] Sources

The best book source is Seeing Straight edited by Therese Thau Heyman, published by the Oakland Museum in 1992.