Studio: international art (1.1893)

The Naissance of Art in Photography

few years ago woke us up by a set of portraits, in able reproductions of the originals by any mechan-

the Kitcat style, of Scots Judges in their robes, ical process such as required for illustrating a book

printed in platinotype on tinted paper with a plate- or journal.

mark ; in each portrait the character was admirably When Mr. Willis introduced the platinotype

preserved. Mr. A. Burchett has also done good process of printing, a great stride was made in

service in figure studies, some of them being on photographic art. The brown tones and glazed

the borderland of pure portraiture. This gentleman surface of albumen paper are now replaced in our

selects good models and paints his own back- exhibitions to a great extent by images in the

grounds. His Girl with a Violin is one of his paper, rivalling the finest engravings, and in some

simplest and, to us, most pleasing achievements. respects superior to them. Those who prefer

The use of hand-cameras is at once a danger and glossy surface and warm media, which undoubtedly

a boon to photography : danger in the abominable have their advantages for some styles, can now

facility it offers for a vast amount of careless work, obtain gelatine-chloride papers, which bid fair to

and the consequent dulling of the artistic discrimi- supplant the albumen.

nation ; a boon to those who use the instrument Photography is seen at its worst in a photo-

aright. By it a faculty of quick observation is graphic exhibition, and our critics ought in justice

cultivated, and we are put in possession of many to remember this. The monotony of colour is

natural effects which are lost to the tripod camera, depressing to those accustomed to the variety of an

We do not allude to the very rapid exposures on exhibition of paintings, just as we, accustomed to

quickly moving objects, but to exposures having photographic collections, are confused and almost

some proportion to the physiological " persistence blinded on entering an exhibition in colour. But

of vision." As an example we have the work of we believe that the unprejudiced will find, in

Mr. A. R. Dresser, who in the course of a year every exhibition of photographs worthy of the

makes an almost incredible number of exposures name, works which will prove the capability of

with a hand-camera. Many of these, when en- photography to stand, and entitle it to the credit

larged to about 12 by 10, or 15 by 12 inches, are 0f standing, as a Fine Art, juvenile though at

held in high esteem by those qualified to judge, present it may be.

The hand-camera has given birth to a school of Andrew Pringle.
workers in small sizes, some of the productions

being gems in their own way. Among works of this Mn Burchett's Girl with a Violin, to which Mr.

kind may be noticed those of Mr. Ramsay and PrinSle refers> and several other fine examples of

Mr. Cembrano; but, on account of the minuteness art in photography, will be given in the next issue

of the detail, it is almost impossible to obtain suit- of The Studio, July 15.

A TAIL-PIECE. FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY F. W. SUTCLIFFE OF Willi BY

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