Camera Work: A Photographic Quarterly (1909 (Heft 26))

too much, for, after all, the mechanical plays in it too important a part for such
extravagant praise. This however, does not alter the fact that photography
can be made valuable means of expression and has some real art value.
This suggests the most artistic, perhaps, of all photographic prints—the
gum-bichromate, usually known as “a gum.” The paper is not to be bought,
but is freshly prepared in the studio, by coating with a mixture of gum-arabic,
a sensitizer and any color desired. As the texture of papers varies so greatly,
the prints produced from the same plate will be exceedingly different according
to the kind used. It may be charcoal, letter-paper, Japanese tissue, or other.
This particular kind of print is manipulated like a charcoal drawing, only,
instead of using the finger or bread to remove color, a fine stream of water or
a soft sable brush is applied, thus removing the pigment and bringing out the
spots of light while the print is kept very wet. These prints are especially
adapted to nude figures, in and out of doors, as one is able to suggest outline
and modelling rather than actual, detailed representation, carrying the develop-
ment on farther in some places than in others. The bugbear of the photog-
rapher with any art instinct is the undue importance which non-essentials
assume in a photographic plate. The gum-print makes it more possible than
in other kinds to subdue and eliminate unimportant detail. It becomes almost
freehand work, so sensitive is the wet print to the touch. It is impossible to
make any two prints alike, and the difficulties are very great in producing a
successful one. The flexibility of the material in this case makes the person-
ality of the artist a factor in its production. If the personality be interesting
enough, also the subject, the result may approach a work of art.
The glycerine print allows a more limited freedom; the result has some-
what the appearance of a wash-drawing. A platinum print is covered with
glycerine, and the parts to be brought out are developed by means of a brush.
The glycerine retards development, so that the process can be regulated
by keeping a sufficient quantity over the portions to be omitted and letting
it run off into an irregular and undefined edge. The great variety of
papers now in use cannot be gone into at length. Platinum paper is
undoubtedly very generally used. In this are many shades of greys,
blacks, and browns. These are the kinds to be seen everywhere in
the commercial photograph gallery and in the studio of higher grade. There
are carbons and ozotypes and the shiny gelatine print. One paper not very
much used, on account of its cost and the delicacy required in handling, is
the Japanese tissue, sensitized to take to the image. This, in general, is less
hard and defined than the well-known platinum, and often gives charming
effects.
The uses of photography are multiplying for such purposes as illustration
and advertising. It gives clear, accurate reproductions, which are of priceless
value to the scientist. The definition found so difficult to soften and lose in
the search for artistic effects is here of greatest assistance, precisely because of
its brilliancy of detail. Its weakness is here its strength, and much has been
accomplished in that branch alone which deals with movement,—running,
jumping, flying appearances and instantaneous attitudes of bird, beast and fish,

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