International studio (80.1925)

inCGRHAClOnAL

Gathedual of St John the Divine

ro see it—really to see This Cathedral, which will be sake of my "art" I feel
it as it is-and to help 0ne of the finest In the world bound to say that I have

others see what I have is beautiful in its detail even s,ome hundreds °f PIates

, , , • , , J. P r- ■ / i that support or tend to sup-

seen, that has been my ,oy- ihough far from finished thfmodest claim that
lul work for many years ucnucv 1 i i

with the Cathedral of St. Antoinette B. HERVEY Photography too may be
John the Divine in the City . one of the fine arts, that as

of New York And in this delightful task my Prof. Arthur W. Dow said, photography is paint-
camera, with its lens turned on some lovely aspect ing with light."

of column, chapel or choir, and its ground glass Perhaps these random jottings from a photog-

. . '■ .■ „ ti,„ qf.pne for mv eye, has rapher's notebook may help some readers who

selecting, interpreting tne scene iui iuj j > r . .

, , ' • i now nave only a pass-

been my best guide

and teacher—that and
the love of the Cathe-
dral itself, growing
with its growth and
ripening with the
years.

Living for thirty
years at the foot of the
wooded slope of Morn-
ingsidc Park that rises
to the cluster of chap-
els and the choir that
as yet form the hope
rather than the real-
ization of the Cathe-
dral—living thus al-
most on the Cathedral
close—I have had the
best of opportunities
for my work. From
every one of my twelve
windows, from the
roof and from the win-
dows and roofs of
neighboring houses, as
well as within the Ca-
thedral itself, with its

ing or hearsay ac-
quaintance with the
Cathedral to catch
something of the de-
signer's vision, some-
thing of the spirit of
the Cathedral itself.
If they do, I shall be
glad, particularly if
incidentally there
dawns a respect for
photography as some-
thing other and higher
than mere reproduc-
tion.

"Still taking that
same old building!"
exclaimed a friend
when I was taking my
thousandth picture,
more or less. "I
thought you did that
some years ago." She
did not realize, as
Monet and his fellows
realize so well, that a
building is like a baby,

I • • I CATHEDRAL IN SPRING „„* r.U ~ r. r,'m ~

choir, crossing, ambu- not changing so rap.

latory and seven idly in form, but vary-

chapels, I have exposed my plates, at each season, ing with every hour of the day, and with every

in rain, snow and sunshine, by night and by day mood of the earth and sky.

an

d at every hour, except possibly at the more 'Is the Cathedral ever as light as that?"

glaring hours which are by amateurs thought to inquired Canon Jones when looking at one of my

be the best, but which are usually the worst for pictures. "Come to my window at five or six on

artistic photography. a sunny June morning and you will see. Gabriel's

"Artistic," by the way, as applied to photog- wings are then as white as those of any angel

raphy, is a term with which many will quarrel, pictures by Milton and the chapel of St. Saviour

having been sedulously, or possibly just casually gleams in the morning light with all the colors of

or thoughtlessly, taught by painters and critics an opal."

that photography is merely reproductive and that Spring with its running leaps into leafage keeps

photographic is the opposite for selective. For the one literally on the Jump to catch the tender

FEBRUARY I 9 2 5 four eleven