Created in the early 20^th century, the Seattle Camera Club was unique to camera clubs in America at that point in history. 

Their core members were mostly Japanese immigrants and women.  They combined the techniques of the Pictorialists, a group of photographers who used soft lighting methods to make their photographs look like paintings, and combined them with Japanese artistic traditions.  The name of the recently published book Shadows of a Fleeting World: Pictorial Photography and the Seattle Camera Club by David F. Martin and Nicolette Bromberg references both the evanescent nature of the light in the members’ photographs as well as the short-lived nature of the club—most of the members were confined to internment camps during World War II.