DOI Artikel:
Roland Rood, Has the Painters’ Judgment of Photographs Any Value?
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.30574#0048
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to be translated, and possibly to be made use of. In other words, the artist
does not think of the print he is talking about, whereas the photographer is
in dead earnest and believes that he is getting an honest opinion. This
habit of translating is so habitual to artists that you will frequently hear them
speaking of a slight pencil-sketch of an old master in exactly the same terms
as they would of one of his completed canvases, but no other artist would,
even for an instant, mistake them.
In this misunderstanding the photographer is mostly to blame, for if he
only stopped and really thought, and at times, too, were a little less conceited,
he could see for himself that it was impossible for his work to possess all
those numerous artistic truths.
There is also another reason why the photo-pictorialist frequently fails
to learn what is going on in the mind of the painter. The photographer
will on occasions show such an overweening appreciation of his own pro-
ductions that the painter no longer takes him seriously, and will, to get rid
of him, agree with any and every preposterous assumption. I think,
however, that when the painter rushes into print he is thoroughly honest.
Before closing I will cite just one of a number of the little conceits that
camera-workers as a whole class are guilty of, one which they have undoubt-
edly acquired through the misunderstanding I have spoken of. Camera-
workers speak of tone, of tonality, and really think that their work has
something to do with tone. But it hasn’t. Tone is a condition which can
only exist when color is present, and the peculiar effect that a picture in tone
makes upon the mind can never be produced by black and white, or by a
monochrome; tone is one of the very highest qualities that color can possess,
and only color can possess it. What photographers so fondly think of as
their tonality is no more or less than envelopment, and is due to a particular
balance of values, focus, and edges.
But, enough. It would appear, then, that painters should be looked
upon with apprehension; something exceedingly useful and of incalculable
assistance to be sure, but to be closely watched; in fact, they ought to be
labeled in large letters " DANGEROUS.” Roland Rood.
does not think of the print he is talking about, whereas the photographer is
in dead earnest and believes that he is getting an honest opinion. This
habit of translating is so habitual to artists that you will frequently hear them
speaking of a slight pencil-sketch of an old master in exactly the same terms
as they would of one of his completed canvases, but no other artist would,
even for an instant, mistake them.
In this misunderstanding the photographer is mostly to blame, for if he
only stopped and really thought, and at times, too, were a little less conceited,
he could see for himself that it was impossible for his work to possess all
those numerous artistic truths.
There is also another reason why the photo-pictorialist frequently fails
to learn what is going on in the mind of the painter. The photographer
will on occasions show such an overweening appreciation of his own pro-
ductions that the painter no longer takes him seriously, and will, to get rid
of him, agree with any and every preposterous assumption. I think,
however, that when the painter rushes into print he is thoroughly honest.
Before closing I will cite just one of a number of the little conceits that
camera-workers as a whole class are guilty of, one which they have undoubt-
edly acquired through the misunderstanding I have spoken of. Camera-
workers speak of tone, of tonality, and really think that their work has
something to do with tone. But it hasn’t. Tone is a condition which can
only exist when color is present, and the peculiar effect that a picture in tone
makes upon the mind can never be produced by black and white, or by a
monochrome; tone is one of the very highest qualities that color can possess,
and only color can possess it. What photographers so fondly think of as
their tonality is no more or less than envelopment, and is due to a particular
balance of values, focus, and edges.
But, enough. It would appear, then, that painters should be looked
upon with apprehension; something exceedingly useful and of incalculable
assistance to be sure, but to be closely watched; in fact, they ought to be
labeled in large letters " DANGEROUS.” Roland Rood.
