Camera Work: A Photographic Quarterly (1908 (Heft 24))

OUR ILLUSTRATIONS

THE first seven plates in this issue of CameraWork are pho-
togravure reproductions of some of the well-known still-life
subjects and portraits by Baron A. de Meyer, of Dresden and
London. Baron de Meyer has been a regular exhibitor for
many years at the London Salon of the Linked Ring, of which he is a
member; in short, he is no new comer in the field of pictorial photography.
Nevertheless, according to his opinion his real serious work may be said to
have begun after he had come into touch with and under the direct influence
of some of the leading Photo-Secessionists and their work. For that reason
it is not unnatural to hear him frequently classed as belonging to the “Ameri-
can School.” His work is original, full of individuality, has strength and
delicacy combined, and above all is distingue. De Meyer is a strong be-
liever in pure photography and his printing medium has so far been plati-
num. During the spring of 1907, and of 1908, he conjointly with Mr.
Coburn held in London important exhibitions of their individual pictures;
these exhibitions won much attention and favor amongst the better classes of
that metropolis.
In the United States de Meyer’s work is not unknown, for in Febru-
ary, 1907, a collection of his prints was exhibited at the Photo-Secession
Galleries. As since that period his advance has been quite remarkable,
another exhibition has been arranged to take place during the winter at the
new gallery of the Photo-Secession.
The reproductions in this number, although reflecting de Meyer’s
spirit, fail to give more than an approximate idea of the actual quality of his
large platinotypes. The plates of the figure subjects were made in London,
under the personal direction of Mr. Coburn, by the firm of J. J. Wadding-
ton & Co. The other plates, and the printing of all seven subjects, are by
the Manhattan Photogravure Company, New York.
“Over the House-tops, New York,” by Mr. William E. Wilmerding,
of New York, Plate VIII in this number of Camera Work, is a reproduc-
tion made directly from the original five by seven negative. This picture is
one of the most charming and sincere bits of New York photography that
we have seen in some time.
Plates IX and X are photogravure reproductions of two photographs
by that popular and productive Italian worker, M. Guido Rey, of Turin.
The two pictures herewith published are characteristic of the kind of work
of which he has made a specialty and with which his name has become most
close! / identified.

37