Camera Work: A Photographic Quarterly (1909 (Heft 28))

He restricts himself to small prints, mostly indoor views. Only occasionally does he venture forth,
camera in hand, into a garden or the open country. He apparently dislikes strong contrasts, and
favors light silver-grey tonalities which pervade the whole picture. Within these boundaries he
reigns supreme. Pictures like “Curtesy” (a girl in holiday attire curtesying before a grey wall),
“Morning” (a girl with a crystal ball at a river in a dim and misty atmosphere), and the “Orch-
ard” (purchased by the Royal “Kupferstichkabinett”), are exquisite inventions, masterly in their
evenness of execution.
Alfred Stieglitz takes us in his pictures to the life out of doors. Truly international is his
selection of themes. He has found inspiration in New York as readily as on the banks of the Seine;
in the dunes of Holland, and the mountains of Tyrol. He, too, prefers an even tonality without
strong contrasts, no doubt because he realizes how far more difficult it is to make something beauti-
ful out of a simple motive, without any extraordinary effect. His “Gossip-Katwyk” and “Land-
ing of the Boats” are charming in their straightforwardness, their clearness of expression and
suggestion of space. Similar are his herd of goats on the Seine; the superb picture of “The
Netmender,” one of the few pictures of large size in this exhibit. The time has passed when
large gum prints represented the height of pictorial achievement. The larger the size of the
print, the more difficult will become the execution. Excessive enlargement of the foreground
is sure to produce unevenness of effect and dead surfaces without any textural charm. This
criticism does not necessarily apply to Heinrich Kuhn’s “Roman Villa,” as the enlargement
has not assumed exaggerated dimensions, but the broad decorative effect and classic stateliness of
this most careful composition is equalled, if not surpassed, by the more intimate charms of many
of his smaller prints. More important and powerful is Kuhn’s “Valley of the Inn.” Other
exhibits of the same artist consist of excellent portraits; three prints which are catalogued as
studies in tone; and a still life of a tea service. They reveal most convincingly the serious in-
tentions of this remarkable exponent of pictorialism to conquer “the peculiar beauty of the
photographic print, and the modulation of tone with all the possibilities of illumination and of the
art of shadows.”
Of special interest are the photographs of Adolph De Meyer of London. He seems to lay
special stress upon portraiture, and the specimens on exhibition are the expression of refined
and aristocratic taste. Each of his portraits has its own individual arrangement, light effect, and
tonality, while all, without exception, have naturalness and a gentle harmony in common, and
fascinate us by a distinguished and remote estheticism. His still lifes of fruit and glassware show
an uncommonly fine sense for values and vague surface beauty.
A peculiar note is struck by the Parisian pictorialist, Robert Demachy. He is a painter and
draughtsman, and is also known as a pioneer of photographic technique and writer on professional
topics. Like the modern artist he selects insignificant motives and executes them in small dimen-
sions. Many a visitor may have passed his exhibits without noticing them; but upon closer
scrutiny his pictures like “Port of Le Havre” and “Street in Ploermal” reveal rare pictorial
feeling. They are (if we are not mistaken) made in the peculiar oil-print process which was per-
fected by Demachy.
The well-known Glasgow photographer, J. Craig Annan, has sent only a few pictures, but
every one is a masterpiece and impresses itself on our memory.
There is his “Sterling Castle,” a complex structure famous through historical associations of
Scotch royalty. The picturesque material is heightened in its effectiveness by the superb depth
of tone and a remarkable transparency of light. Details like the white horse (resembling one of
Wouverman’s quadrupeds) do not disturb the tonal effect. The spirited animal seems to have
been introduced for no other reason than to brighten up, in an inobtrusive manner, a dark part
of the picture.
There has been much argument whether vagueness or clearness of form is more artistic.
The present tendency is toward vagueness; but that artistic results are obtainable by precision of
form is shown best by Stieglitz’ “The Netmender,” and Craig Annan’s “Sterling Castle,” and
his magnificent portrait of Rev. Donald Macleod. A vague symbolic tendency is noticeable in his
“ Botticelli.” On the wall hangs an oval panel by the Florentine Primitive and before it stands a
contemplating maiden with a Botticelli coiffure. The sentiment is fairly well expressed. Rather

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