Camera Work: A Photographic Quarterly (1909 (Heft 27))

OUR ILLUSTRATIONS

THE first five plates in this number of Camera Work are de-
voted to the work of Mr. Herbert G. French. A prominent
officer in one of the largest business corporations in Ohio,
he is a lover and patron of the arts and practises photography
for no other purpose than the pleasure it gives himself. It
is only under pressure that he permits his prints to be shown
publicly or to be reproduced. We feel, however, that Mr. French is doing
work which is distinctive, and often very beautiful; and that he is indubit-
ably a factor in American pictorial photography. But it is virtually impos-
sible to do many of his prints justice in reproduction, since Mr. French’s
work is for the most part exceedingly sensitive and is presented in such a
manner that the print is but the part of a scheme. The latter frequently is
to illustrate a special edition of some favorite poem which he has had printed
and bound for his own library. A few years ago his series of illustrations
for the Arthurian legend, which was exhibited in the Little Galleries of the
Photo-Secession, attracted much favorable comment. Mr. French’s original
prints are all platinotypes.
The remaining four plates in this issue are the work of two photographers
in collaboration. A little over two years ago, Alfred Stieglitz and Clarence
H. White, in consequence of various lively discussions with some painters
about portrait painting and the impossibility of the camera to do certain
things, began a series of experiments to demonstrate the pliability of straight
photography as a medium for portraiture and figure work and so disprove the
painters’ contentions. These experiments were to serve at the same time as
some technical tests of a certain brand of plates and a new lens. Although in
the course of two weeks a series of sixty negatives was made, circumstances
made it impossible to produce more than a few finished prints. It is hoped
to complete the experiment in the near future. Meanwhile four of the series
are herewith reproduced; not as a proof of anything in particular, but simply
for what they are. The negative of the “Torso,” it might be added, was
made by gaslight. In reproduction this picture loses none of the quality of
the original print, but the two light silvery gray pictures only approximately
convey the charm of the original platinum prints.
The Manhattan Photogravure Company, of New York, which is respon-
sible for the plates in this number of Camera Work has done all
in its power to reflect the spirit of the originals reproduced. When it
failed it was due to the difference of processes, the impossibility of repro-
ducing by any process a certain quality obtainable in platinum printing. All
the gravures were made from the original negatives.

47