DOI Heft:
No. 3 (June, 1893)
DOI Artikel:Pringle, Andrew: The naissance of art in photography
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17188#0107
The Naissance of Art in Photography
COBRIERE ROCKS, JERSEY. FROS
enormous number of persons who have no idea of
the most rudimentary principles of art rushing
about all lands photographing. The science is so
full of varied fascinations that it procures many
followers, and these become so much enamoured
of it that they do not lightly give it up. Every
class of person seems to find something congenial
in photography; the mechanical genius takes to
devising hand-cameras and instantaneous shutters ;
the chemical student wallows in strange combina-
tions of " reducing-agents "; the globe-trotter who
glories in his travels has a handy means of proving
his peregrinations ; in short, every one finds photo-
graphy so easy and so interesting a method to
produce graphic and lasting results without lengthy
or expensive preparation, that there is little cause
for wonder that so many more or less unoccupied
persons having taken to it, stick to it. There is
no reason why they should not do so ; picture-
making is not one of the cardinal virtues imposed
upon mankind, and we have every right to make
topographic photographs if we see fit. But
among the legion of such, those which are really
A PHOTOGRAPH BY A. R. DRESSER
pictures are apt to be overlooked. This is, how-
ever, the fault of our societies and not of photo-
graphy. It is true that a few exhibitions have
been held where artistic effect alone was supposed
to be considered, but although these showed a
distinct advance in the quality of some exhibits,
the others were in no way more worthy to be
called pictures than are those in ordinary exhibi-
tions, unless we find abnormal merit in mannerism
and rechauffage of the ideas of others. Yet, amid
all the merely mechanical works one must remem-
ber that some "pictures," be they few or many,
are also to be found.
There is no denying that not only the general
public, but also many who are well qualified to
judge of such matters, find one photograph to be
" more artistic " than another ; it is notorious that
on several occasions several photographers have
taken the same scene, and that one set of opera-
tions resulted in a picture while the others gave
mere topographical photographs. In such a case
the artistic qualities can be compared, and have
been compared, and it is evident that comparison
89
COBRIERE ROCKS, JERSEY. FROS
enormous number of persons who have no idea of
the most rudimentary principles of art rushing
about all lands photographing. The science is so
full of varied fascinations that it procures many
followers, and these become so much enamoured
of it that they do not lightly give it up. Every
class of person seems to find something congenial
in photography; the mechanical genius takes to
devising hand-cameras and instantaneous shutters ;
the chemical student wallows in strange combina-
tions of " reducing-agents "; the globe-trotter who
glories in his travels has a handy means of proving
his peregrinations ; in short, every one finds photo-
graphy so easy and so interesting a method to
produce graphic and lasting results without lengthy
or expensive preparation, that there is little cause
for wonder that so many more or less unoccupied
persons having taken to it, stick to it. There is
no reason why they should not do so ; picture-
making is not one of the cardinal virtues imposed
upon mankind, and we have every right to make
topographic photographs if we see fit. But
among the legion of such, those which are really
A PHOTOGRAPH BY A. R. DRESSER
pictures are apt to be overlooked. This is, how-
ever, the fault of our societies and not of photo-
graphy. It is true that a few exhibitions have
been held where artistic effect alone was supposed
to be considered, but although these showed a
distinct advance in the quality of some exhibits,
the others were in no way more worthy to be
called pictures than are those in ordinary exhibi-
tions, unless we find abnormal merit in mannerism
and rechauffage of the ideas of others. Yet, amid
all the merely mechanical works one must remem-
ber that some "pictures," be they few or many,
are also to be found.
There is no denying that not only the general
public, but also many who are well qualified to
judge of such matters, find one photograph to be
" more artistic " than another ; it is notorious that
on several occasions several photographers have
taken the same scene, and that one set of opera-
tions resulted in a picture while the others gave
mere topographical photographs. In such a case
the artistic qualities can be compared, and have
been compared, and it is evident that comparison
89