pictorialism

noun ! Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). More about pictorialism at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

1. A school of artistic photography that emphasized using photography to mimic certain styles of contemporary painting, that flourished in the late 19th and early 20th centuries
2. Any artistic use of photography to imitate painting, especially using pictorial conventions.
3. The theory that mental imagery is visual rather than based on language-like description.