There was a trend in photography that began at the end of the 19th century called Pictorialism, which emphasized soft focus and significant retouching[1]. It began to fall out of fashion in the nineteen-teens when its most prominent voice, Alfred Stieglitz, embraced modernism[2]. Interestingly, even Ansel Adams started as a pictorialist before embracing "straight" photography. Adams became an incredibly outspoken critic of pictorialism, going so far as to call the last well-known pictorialist, William Mortensen, "the antichrist" years after Mortensen's death[3].

Of course, these things have a way of going full-circle, and—today—digital pictorialism is the big thing. It'll pass in a few years.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pictorialism (some images below the fold are NSFW'ish)

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Stieglitz#O.27Keeffe_and...

[3] http://www.ishootfilm.org/blog/2014/10/20/11-the-incredibly-...