DOI Artikel:
Holland, Clive: Artistic photography in Great Britain
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.27086#0014
GREAT BRITAIN
graphy, or the Art of the Camera, with some degree of exactness.
Most, however, of these have been foredoomed to failure by reason
of the rapid developments which not only the technical but also the
art side have recently undergone. What is true of its general
limitations to-day may not be nearly so true to-morrow, next week,
next month, or a year hence.
There are many who are of the opinion that Photography’s claim to
be an art is being most surely and steadily advanced along the lines
of pictorial composition ; the elimination either by treatment of the
negative or of the print of the superfluous and the crude; and the
more subtle and artistic methods of printing which have during the
last decade, and even during the last five years, come into general
favour with its best exponents, and have at the same time brought
about so distinct and advantageous a change.
But, as has been so often said, it is the spirit at the back of all
photographic work, in a word the mind behind the focussing
screen, and in the dark room, and the sentiment which is brought to
bear when the actual print is about to be produced or the initial
experiment in printing made, which may or may not go far to
support the claim that the results attained are artistic.
Many workers are given to take themselves—not their work—too
seriously, and are prone to relegate the negative to an altogether
subsidiary position as regards the picture. It is little use to adopt
this course unless there be something in the training or tempera-
ment of the individual capable of producing that too frequently rare
result, a photographic picture in which real sentiment and personal
expression is evident. It is pretty safe to assert that where such
results are attained they are more often than not brought about by
either the trained or innate artistic perception of the worker rather
than by the adoption of any of the canons which are held by some
to govern the production of prints laying claim to be pictorial.
Without the natural gift of artistic expression, all the art knowledge
in the world will, in nine cases out of ten, when applied to photo-
graphy prove futile. The elements of composition which go to
the making of painted pictures may be acquired, but with the
camera one is confronted by a medium of expression far more
uncompromising than that afforded by a colour box. It is the
knowledge and intuition which brings about the softening and
modifying of the uncompromising character of the results usually
obtained by the camera ; the power of elimination of the crude or
superfluous (so far as possible) on the actual negative, and afterwards
on the print itself; and the introduction of atmosphere and
G B 2
graphy, or the Art of the Camera, with some degree of exactness.
Most, however, of these have been foredoomed to failure by reason
of the rapid developments which not only the technical but also the
art side have recently undergone. What is true of its general
limitations to-day may not be nearly so true to-morrow, next week,
next month, or a year hence.
There are many who are of the opinion that Photography’s claim to
be an art is being most surely and steadily advanced along the lines
of pictorial composition ; the elimination either by treatment of the
negative or of the print of the superfluous and the crude; and the
more subtle and artistic methods of printing which have during the
last decade, and even during the last five years, come into general
favour with its best exponents, and have at the same time brought
about so distinct and advantageous a change.
But, as has been so often said, it is the spirit at the back of all
photographic work, in a word the mind behind the focussing
screen, and in the dark room, and the sentiment which is brought to
bear when the actual print is about to be produced or the initial
experiment in printing made, which may or may not go far to
support the claim that the results attained are artistic.
Many workers are given to take themselves—not their work—too
seriously, and are prone to relegate the negative to an altogether
subsidiary position as regards the picture. It is little use to adopt
this course unless there be something in the training or tempera-
ment of the individual capable of producing that too frequently rare
result, a photographic picture in which real sentiment and personal
expression is evident. It is pretty safe to assert that where such
results are attained they are more often than not brought about by
either the trained or innate artistic perception of the worker rather
than by the adoption of any of the canons which are held by some
to govern the production of prints laying claim to be pictorial.
Without the natural gift of artistic expression, all the art knowledge
in the world will, in nine cases out of ten, when applied to photo-
graphy prove futile. The elements of composition which go to
the making of painted pictures may be acquired, but with the
camera one is confronted by a medium of expression far more
uncompromising than that afforded by a colour box. It is the
knowledge and intuition which brings about the softening and
modifying of the uncompromising character of the results usually
obtained by the camera ; the power of elimination of the crude or
superfluous (so far as possible) on the actual negative, and afterwards
on the print itself; and the introduction of atmosphere and
G B 2