American group of photographers, active 1932-5. It was a loose association of San Francisco Bay Area photographers who articulated and promoted a modern movement in photographic aesthetics. The group was formed in August 1932 by photographers who shared an interest in pure and unmanipulated photography as a means of creative expression. It derived its name from the smallest possible aperture setting on a camera, the use of which resulted in the greatest and sharpest depth of field, producing an image with foreground and background clearly focused. The original membership consisted of Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, John Paul Edwards (1883-1958), Sonya Noskowiak (1900-75), Henry Swift (1891-1960), Willard Van Dyke (1906-86) and Edward Weston. The emphasis on clarity was partly a reaction against the lingering Pictorialism in West Coast photography, exemplified by the work of William Mortensen (1897-1965) and Anne Brigman (1869-1950), who achieved painterly effects through manipulation of the negative and print.
See the Abbreviations for further details.
