pictorialism

noun3

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.

   • The black-and-white portraits and landscapes […] fall somewhere between photojournalism and pictorialism. — 2007
3. •
   The theory that mental imagery is visual rather than based on language-like description.