a style of painting and sculpture that depicts esp commonplace urban images with meticulously accurate detail
Derived forms
photorealist (ˌphotoˈrealist)
noun, adjective
photorealism in American English
(ˌfoutouˈriəˌlɪzəm)
noun
(sometimes cap)
a style of painting flourishing in the 1970s, esp. in the U.S., England, and France, and depicting commonplace scenes or ordinary people, with a meticulously detailed realism, flat images, and barely discernible brushwork that suggests and often is based on or incorporates an actual photograph
Also: photo realism. Also called: sharp-focus realism, superrealism
Derived forms
photorealist
noun or adjective
photorealistic
adjective
Word origin
[1960–65; photo- + realism]This word is first recorded in the period 1960–65. Other words that entered Englishat around the same time include: buyback, parvovirus, proxemics, tag question, zip codephoto- is a combining form meaning “light” (photobiology); also used to represent “photographic” or “photograph” in the formation of compoundwords. Other words that use the affix photo- include: photocell, photocoagulation, photolithography, photomultiplier, photopathy
Examples of 'photorealism' in a sentence
photorealism
The photographs then serve as the model for a particularly melancholy strain of photorealism.
Times, Sunday Times (2011)
Photorealism meant something because it had a kind of vacuousness to it.
Times, Sunday Times (2014)
To some people, photorealism is the highest skill.
Times, Sunday Times (2014)
The busy layered paintings, a mishmash of pattern and photorealism in every colour under thesun, look like computer-age psychedelia.
Times, Sunday Times (2007)
Photorealism, for all that it might amaze with its meticulous technique, is far too prevalent.
Times, Sunday Times (2011)
The surreal absurdity of all this is a joy in itself, while the iridescent underwater scenes border on photorealism.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
There's something for everyone here: work on a vast scale to small collages; photorealism to neo-pop and schlock.
Times, Sunday Times (2006)
We may still be a step away from true photorealism, but the gap is closing fast.