DOI article:
Holland, Clive: Artistic photography in Great Britain
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.27086#0015
GREAT BRITAIN
personal feeling which goes to the making of such works as evoke
admiration. Without these qualities all the art recipes in the world
are likely to prove dangerous and useless.
It is the possession of perceptive and selective powers, and of what
is commonly known as the artistic instinct, that has enabled the
masters of all schools to triumph where mere technical ability and
knowledge of canons and rules has so often resulted in only qualified
success or even in unqualified failure. If laws and rules had been
the primary factors in the production of works of art, whether of
painting, of architecture, or of photography, those works would be
to-day precisely what they were in past ages. There would have
been neither advancement towards perfection nor the natural
development and unfolding of the individualism which has proved
the salvation of art at various crises, and has served to retain its
freshness and assist its development throughout the centuries.
In photography as in painting the old order changeth, and in regard
to individuality eccentricity has often to be condoned, if not even
pardoned, for the sake of the ultimate results ; when the spirit of
revolt against any particular method of expression or school has had
time to grow less insistent, and the revolutionists to, as one says,
“ find ” themselves.
Innovators have always been terrible to the man in the street. But
in art, as in other walks of life, frequently it is not possible to attain
a hearing or attract attention to even serious developments with-
out some beating of drums. Another point. Extremists who have
let their discoveries in pictorial work run wild, have, neverthe-
less, often served a useful purpose by challenging antipathetic and
severe criticism. Art lives and advances by criticism of the right
sort, and much that is valuable in present day methods of photo-
graphy has resulted from what has at first been too noisy a revolt
from the conventions, and from that aspect and view which had
served a former generation of even the workers of the year before
last.
It is, indeed, to a series of such revolts that present day pictorial
photography owes its individuality, charm, and increasing freshness
of view. Twenty years ago, nay even a decade ago, the walls of
our chief exhibitions showed photographs, whether landscape,
portraits, figure studies, or genre, which were more remarkable for
fidelity than pictorial merit ; were rather transcripts than renderings
of the subjects chosen. Now, happily, few exhibitions are held
without some pictures of outstanding merit on the pictorial side
being shown, and many works which, whilst frankly and purely
g b 3
personal feeling which goes to the making of such works as evoke
admiration. Without these qualities all the art recipes in the world
are likely to prove dangerous and useless.
It is the possession of perceptive and selective powers, and of what
is commonly known as the artistic instinct, that has enabled the
masters of all schools to triumph where mere technical ability and
knowledge of canons and rules has so often resulted in only qualified
success or even in unqualified failure. If laws and rules had been
the primary factors in the production of works of art, whether of
painting, of architecture, or of photography, those works would be
to-day precisely what they were in past ages. There would have
been neither advancement towards perfection nor the natural
development and unfolding of the individualism which has proved
the salvation of art at various crises, and has served to retain its
freshness and assist its development throughout the centuries.
In photography as in painting the old order changeth, and in regard
to individuality eccentricity has often to be condoned, if not even
pardoned, for the sake of the ultimate results ; when the spirit of
revolt against any particular method of expression or school has had
time to grow less insistent, and the revolutionists to, as one says,
“ find ” themselves.
Innovators have always been terrible to the man in the street. But
in art, as in other walks of life, frequently it is not possible to attain
a hearing or attract attention to even serious developments with-
out some beating of drums. Another point. Extremists who have
let their discoveries in pictorial work run wild, have, neverthe-
less, often served a useful purpose by challenging antipathetic and
severe criticism. Art lives and advances by criticism of the right
sort, and much that is valuable in present day methods of photo-
graphy has resulted from what has at first been too noisy a revolt
from the conventions, and from that aspect and view which had
served a former generation of even the workers of the year before
last.
It is, indeed, to a series of such revolts that present day pictorial
photography owes its individuality, charm, and increasing freshness
of view. Twenty years ago, nay even a decade ago, the walls of
our chief exhibitions showed photographs, whether landscape,
portraits, figure studies, or genre, which were more remarkable for
fidelity than pictorial merit ; were rather transcripts than renderings
of the subjects chosen. Now, happily, few exhibitions are held
without some pictures of outstanding merit on the pictorial side
being shown, and many works which, whilst frankly and purely
g b 3