When photos looked like paintings: 27 frames from Leonard Misonne

Belgian photographer Leonard Mison (Leonard Misonne) was trained as an engineer before discovering the picture. He was born in 1870 and grew up in the Belgian town of Gilly. The photographer traveled to his native Europe and beyond its borders, taking pictures and people. His work is distinguished by soft, painterly images in the style of pictorialism movement in photography that highlights in pictures of those features that bring it to painting and graphics. This effect was achieved by a special technique of printing using oil and dichromate.

Mison said the sky — a key component of the landscape. And this philosophy is clearly evident in his works filled with billowing clouds, morning mist and the piercing rays of the sun. Also Mison loved inclement weather, close to the storm, and shot, often wandering the streets under an umbrella or struggling with the strong gusts of the winter Blizzard.