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21 Atmospheric Photos Taken in the Rain

By Ellyn Kail on July 5, 2018

Rhinebeck in the Rain © John Duke Kisch (@john_duke_kisch)

On rainy days, when the average pedestrian might opt to stay inside, photographers head into the streets. Bleak, gloomy days make for cinematic, mystery-laden imagery. At the turn of the century, the Pictorialists used dreary weather to make their photographs seem more soft and atmospheric, like paintings. Steiglitz had his Spring Showers and Steichen had his Flatiron Building; in both, we find the streets of New York City wet with rain. Throughout the last century, rain in photography has stood in for human emotion; our memory makes the world seem hazy, and so does the rain.

For this online group show, we combed The Print Swap collection for photographs that recalled those early experiments by the Pictorialists. The photographers featured here hail from all over the world, but they are tied together by the murky and ambiguous underpinnings of their images. Though they transport us to different spots on the globe, they all guide us inwards, through the many secret contours of our own imaginations.

The Print Swap is a project by Feature Shoot. All participating photographers give and receive prints from the collection, and Print Swap photographers are also considered for our offline exhibitions. We invite you to submit images by tagging #theprintswap on Instagram. Photos must be submitted before July 13th in order to be considered for our next exhibition, taking place at Photoville in New York City. It’s free to submit, but selected photographers pay $40 per image to participate. We cover printing and shipping worldwide. Follow @theprintswap on Instagram for more.