DOI Heft:
No. 32 (November, 1895)
DOI Artikel:The photographic salon
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17295#0127
The Photographic Salon
snapshot by j. craig annan
It may be as well to say
here that if in the course of
the present paper the writer
makes use of the term Art
in connection with photo-
graphy—a term which in
some quarters is hotly con-
tested—it is for the sake of
convenience, and to avoid
a roundabout method of
stating things, which might
otherwise become neces-
sary. It is not intended to
be assertive of more than
is already conceded by
many, and, at the same
time, there is no desire to
minimise whatever credit
in this direction may be
properly due.
The exhibition which
has just closed continued
examples at such an exhibition as that of the to show very clearly that the best forms of pictorial
Photographic Salon. Even there, in the best work art in photography are still in the hands of the
shown, the inquirer who is not above taking hints, amateur. By this it is not meant to imply that the
is looking at things almost, as it were, in the
dark. Some aids in the production of much
admired effects, probably very simple in
themselves, are jealously guarded as import-
ant secrets, and the first to make use of
them considers himself justified in assuming
a kind of patent right over them. It can-
not, of course, be asserted for a moment
that the feeling just alluded to, is peculiar
to the photographic exhibitor, but from the
point of view of pictorial photography which
is taken by the organisers of the Salon,
methods of the kind are scarcely likely to
promote the object which they have at
heart. Where there is question of anything
more than mechanical handling there can
be no secret worth guarding as such, if it
can be told in a moment and easily followed,
and the standard of work which the Salon
has consistently set since the commence-
ment, can certainly depend in no way upon
tricks, or trade secrets, which sooner or
later are bound to be found out and ap-
praised at their true value. The painter's
art stands on a more established basis, but
in the present position of photography an
unselfish policy would probably prove, in
the long run, to be of greater benefit to the
individual. "vengeance" by c. puyo
snapshot by j. craig annan
It may be as well to say
here that if in the course of
the present paper the writer
makes use of the term Art
in connection with photo-
graphy—a term which in
some quarters is hotly con-
tested—it is for the sake of
convenience, and to avoid
a roundabout method of
stating things, which might
otherwise become neces-
sary. It is not intended to
be assertive of more than
is already conceded by
many, and, at the same
time, there is no desire to
minimise whatever credit
in this direction may be
properly due.
The exhibition which
has just closed continued
examples at such an exhibition as that of the to show very clearly that the best forms of pictorial
Photographic Salon. Even there, in the best work art in photography are still in the hands of the
shown, the inquirer who is not above taking hints, amateur. By this it is not meant to imply that the
is looking at things almost, as it were, in the
dark. Some aids in the production of much
admired effects, probably very simple in
themselves, are jealously guarded as import-
ant secrets, and the first to make use of
them considers himself justified in assuming
a kind of patent right over them. It can-
not, of course, be asserted for a moment
that the feeling just alluded to, is peculiar
to the photographic exhibitor, but from the
point of view of pictorial photography which
is taken by the organisers of the Salon,
methods of the kind are scarcely likely to
promote the object which they have at
heart. Where there is question of anything
more than mechanical handling there can
be no secret worth guarding as such, if it
can be told in a moment and easily followed,
and the standard of work which the Salon
has consistently set since the commence-
ment, can certainly depend in no way upon
tricks, or trade secrets, which sooner or
later are bound to be found out and ap-
praised at their true value. The painter's
art stands on a more established basis, but
in the present position of photography an
unselfish policy would probably prove, in
the long run, to be of greater benefit to the
individual. "vengeance" by c. puyo