DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.27086#0007
PREFATORY NOTE
THE progress that has taken place during the last two or three
decades in the art of photography is one of the many remarkable
phenomena of the nineteenth century. In part, at all events, this
progress may be due to the improvement which has been effected
in every detail of the material and appliances connected with it ;
but if this has been notable, still more so has been the improve-
ment, technical and artistic, in the manipulation of them. The
camera has ceased to be the master and has become, as it should
be, an instrument more and more controlled by the mind of the
individual who manipulates it ; and this instrument is now employed
by men endowed with artistic perception and feeling, who are
able to give expression to their ideas in a manner satisfactory to the
artistic instinct or perception of the world at large.
That the artistic perception was not altogether absent among opera-
tors in the early days of camera work is well shown in the prints by
D. O. Hill, which we are able herewith to reproduce by the courtesy
of Mr. Andrew Elliott of Edinburgh. Mr. Hill was a member of
the Royal Scottish Academy, and in the year 1843, at the suggestion
of his friend, Sir John Herschel, made use of the, then, new process
of photography to aid him in the painting of a picture in which
no less than 430 portraits had to be included. So successful was he
in his use of the camera that portraits of all the leading Edinburgh
people were afterwards produced by him, and he will probably be
known in the future as the father of artistic photography.
The aim of the Editor in the preparation of this special
number has been to bring together examples of the best work done
in recent years by the leading photographic artists in Europe and
America ; and a special effort has been made to ensure that the
reproductions shall retain as much as possible of the quality of the
original prints. He desires to express his thanks to all those who
have aided him by placing material at his disposal and in various
other ways. Especially are his thanks due to Mr. J. Craig Annan,
Mr. A. Horsley Hinton, Mr. Clive Holland, Miss A. S. Levetus,
Miss Maude Oliver, Mr. Alfred Stieglitz, Mr. E. J. Steichen,
Mr. A. L. Coburn, Sgr. Guido Rey, and to Mr. Max Ferrars,
who has followed up the beautiful and remarkable series of photo-
graphs reproduced in his work on Burma by another fine series
from the Black Forest (including the one reproduced herein), which
have been used to illustrate some dialect poems under the title
“ Walderliit,” published by Moritz Schauenburg.
THE progress that has taken place during the last two or three
decades in the art of photography is one of the many remarkable
phenomena of the nineteenth century. In part, at all events, this
progress may be due to the improvement which has been effected
in every detail of the material and appliances connected with it ;
but if this has been notable, still more so has been the improve-
ment, technical and artistic, in the manipulation of them. The
camera has ceased to be the master and has become, as it should
be, an instrument more and more controlled by the mind of the
individual who manipulates it ; and this instrument is now employed
by men endowed with artistic perception and feeling, who are
able to give expression to their ideas in a manner satisfactory to the
artistic instinct or perception of the world at large.
That the artistic perception was not altogether absent among opera-
tors in the early days of camera work is well shown in the prints by
D. O. Hill, which we are able herewith to reproduce by the courtesy
of Mr. Andrew Elliott of Edinburgh. Mr. Hill was a member of
the Royal Scottish Academy, and in the year 1843, at the suggestion
of his friend, Sir John Herschel, made use of the, then, new process
of photography to aid him in the painting of a picture in which
no less than 430 portraits had to be included. So successful was he
in his use of the camera that portraits of all the leading Edinburgh
people were afterwards produced by him, and he will probably be
known in the future as the father of artistic photography.
The aim of the Editor in the preparation of this special
number has been to bring together examples of the best work done
in recent years by the leading photographic artists in Europe and
America ; and a special effort has been made to ensure that the
reproductions shall retain as much as possible of the quality of the
original prints. He desires to express his thanks to all those who
have aided him by placing material at his disposal and in various
other ways. Especially are his thanks due to Mr. J. Craig Annan,
Mr. A. Horsley Hinton, Mr. Clive Holland, Miss A. S. Levetus,
Miss Maude Oliver, Mr. Alfred Stieglitz, Mr. E. J. Steichen,
Mr. A. L. Coburn, Sgr. Guido Rey, and to Mr. Max Ferrars,
who has followed up the beautiful and remarkable series of photo-
graphs reproduced in his work on Burma by another fine series
from the Black Forest (including the one reproduced herein), which
have been used to illustrate some dialect poems under the title
“ Walderliit,” published by Moritz Schauenburg.