Camera Work: A Photographic Quarterly (1907 (Heft 20))

that Lumière had had to show. I wrote to you about that time, and told
you what I had seen and thought, and you remember what you replied.
His trip to London, his looking you up and showing you his work, how it
took you literally off your feet, how a glance (like with myself) was sufficient
to show you that the day had come, your enthusiasm, your own experiments,
etc., etc.— all that is history, and is for the most part recorded in your weekly.
While in London Steichen did Shaw and Lady Hamilton in color; also a
group of four on Davison’s house-boat. The pictures are artistically far in
advance of anything he had to show you.
The possibilities of the process seem to be unlimited. Steichen's
pictures are with me here in Munich; he himself is now in Venice working.
It is a positive pleasure to watch the faces of the doubting Thomases—the
painters and art critics especially—as they listen interestedly about what the
process can do. You feel their cynical smile. Then, showing them the
transparencies, one and all faces look positively paralysed, stunned. A
color kinematographic record of them would be priceless in many respects.
Then enthusiasm, delighted, unbounded, breaks loose, like yours and mine
and everyone’s who sees decent results. All are amazed at the remarkably
truthful color rendering; the wonderful luminosity of the shadows, that bug-
bear of the photographer in monochrome; the endless range of grays; the
richness of the deep colors. In short, soon the world will be color-mad, and
Lumière will be responsible.
It is perhaps fortunate that temporarily the plates are out of the market.
The difference between the results that will be obtained between the artistic
fine feeling and the everyday blind will even be greater in color than in
monochrome. Heaven have pity on us. But the good will eventually
outweigh the evil, as in all things. I for one have learned above all that no
problem seems to be beyond the reach of science.
Yours truly,
Tutzing, Munich, July 31st, 1907. Alfred Stieglitz.”
When Steichen visited Mr. Bayley, the editor of Photography, he gave
him a box of plates to try and judge for himself what could be done with
them. It is needless to say that Bayley took the cue. Photography came
out at once with a blare of trumpets about the wonderful invention. The
Steichen interview was printed in full. As no plates could be had in Great
Britain until very recently—even France had virtually none in July and part
of August owing to some trouble in the factory at Lyons—and as the editors
had no opportunity of seeing any pictures, Bayley and his enthusiasm were
laughed at with derision. It was then that my letter was written. As a
result some of the English Dailies which devote space regularly to pho-
tography had become keenly interested in Color Photography, although none
had seen any actual results. In the United States also, most of the editors
having followed the English press, were having great sport with the claims
made about the pictures which they had not seen. Then followed, therefore,
a second letter to Bayley. It is more suggestive than comprehensive: