The artistic side of photography in theory and practice

Preface

There has not been, my dear Monica, that progress in pictorial photography which one feels the right to expect ; and yet, since human nature is human nature, this stagnation is exactly what one ought to expect : for what cook would serve up plain roast chicken when it might be converted into something modish a la Rostand ? And what photographer could be content with a simple platinotype when he has the stock of the oil-and-colourman at his disposal ?

Therefore, instead of starting where D. 0. Hill left off some sixty years past, and going on to conquer the method of pure photography, the picture makers first employed themselves in the imitation of Victorian Academicians ; then in the combination of portions of various negatives in one print ; and lastly in manipulating effects by the oil or gum process that might have been attained with greater ease and certainty by stump or paint-brush. During this time the pursuit of plain, straightforward photography was principally neglected.

Now, thanks to the steadfastness of certain English purists and the influence of the American Photo Secession, there are signs of a return to the methods of D. 0. Hill. This is surely the commencement of a real photographic advance towards honest Art.

Preface jfe

Unfortunately, there is a gap between the photographic writers of the older school and the purely practical or purely artistic writers of the present, and I am making a tentative effort to fill this gap until the new movement breeds its own literature.

You will find that I have noted down several of our conversations, and now publish them. I have done this baseness, partly because we seem to have reached our point in less time than it would take to write a chapter, and partly in the hope that they may serve as pleasant vehicles for the moral doctrines which we determined.

I pray you, as a type of sweetness and common sense, to accept the dedication of my book.

A. J. ANDERSON.

Contents

A. THE MEDIUM OF PHOTOGRAPHY

CHAP. PAGE

I. IS PHOTOGRAPHY A FINE ART ? . . .13

II Illustrations £

PAGE

A Quiet Corner. By Guido Rey .... 243

From an original platinotype.

The Little Round Mirror. By Eduard J. Steichen 249

From a print in the Collection of Harold Holcroft.

Portrait taken some Thirty-seven Years Ago. By

William Babcock .261

Print from the original paper negative in the possession of J. A. P. Cole.

Running Home. By F. J. Mortimer .... 279

From an original bromide.

Mrs. Wiggins of Belgrave Square. By Baron A. de

Meyer 289

From an original bromide.

The Silver Skirt. By Baron A. de Meyer . . 297

From an original platinotype.

Height and Light in Bourges Cathedral. By F. H.

From an original platinotype.

SUPPLEMENTARY ILLUSTRATIONS

Examples of Perspective 91

The Effect of an Accent 173

Hands in Portraiture . . - . . . 309

Portrait against the Light 315

As an illustration of the artistic possibilities of photography, the above list of photographs is altogether satisfactory ; but these photographs do not purpose to be illustrations of the text.

In illustrating a book there are three courses open : the writer may have special pictures made to illustrate the most important points in the text ; he may choose a certain number of pictures and write the text round them ; or he may ignore the pictures, write on, and leave the pictures to sing their own song in their own way.

Now, it is obvious that the author could not send a score of the leading photographers hunting round to illustrate certain passages in his MS. ; he did not wish to confine himself to a series of wordy and discursive criticisms ; so he has been forced to ignore most of the illustrations, and allow them to warble on unmolested.

After selecting what he personally considers the finest examples of pictorial photography, without regard to men or methods, the author is compelled to point out that all the photographs, except two, are straight prints from straight negatives, and that platinotype predominates.

Whilst thanking the various illustrators for their kindness and courtesy, the author acknowledges a special debt of gratitude to Mr. Alvin Langdon Coburn for his great assistance with both illustrations and text.

XZ

2 0 625 6 td. THE MEDIUM OF PHOTOGR^PHT CHAPTER I

IS PHOTOGRAPHY A FINE ART ?

To the Art Critics.

" You have set photography amongst the mechanical arts ! Truly, were photographers as readily equipped as you are to praise their own work in writing, I doubt whether it would endure the reproach of so vile a name."

I claim no originality for this protest. I have merely taken it from Leonardo da Vinci's note-book, substituting " photography " for " painting."

If da Vinci, smarting under the " reproach " of his sixteenth-century critics, wrote :

" You have set painting amongst the mechanical arts ! Truly, were painters as readily equipped as you are to praise their own work in writing, I doubt whether it would endure the reproach of so vile a name,"

modern photographers cannot grumble if modern critics follow similar methods.

The cream of the joke lies in the fact that da Vinci tells us that the old critics called painting " mechanical," because it was " done with the hand."

After all, photography is an " Art " which has made but little progress since the days of D. 0. Hill, and photographers are only beginning to discover the flexibility of pure photography.

Possibly photography has failed to earn its status as a Fine Art, because so much of it has been " done with the hand."

?4

Chapter II How To Approach The Subject

I. At the present time there is a restless feeling amongst artistic photographers, and, I think, a feeling of disappointment. Until a year or two ago pictorial photography appeared to be making steady progress ; then that progress seemed to stop, and the more artistic among the camera people had to ask themselves why progress had stopped. They may have explained to themselves publicly, as they explained during the London Photographic Salon of 1908, that photography was only growing more sound and sane, and that the day of startling eccentricities was over ; but they knew in their hearts that the movement had stopped. Then, at the Salon of 1909, the Committee hung a collection of the late D. O. Hill's photographs on one of the exhibition walls, and pictorial photographers owned openly to each other that pictorial photography had made no material progress since the year 1843, and that there were few of the. modern pictures which equalled the work of Mr. Hill.

As a matter of fact, D. O. Hill seems to have taken up photography chiefly as an aid to his painting ; his work was unknown or forgotten until recent years, and consequently his influence has been unfelt : the artistic revival and progress of pictorial photography has been a revolt from the " critical definition " of the optician, from the " full scale of gradations " of the chemist, and from the conventional art of the mid- Victorian period — a revolt which led the revolutionists into many excesses and endless pitfalls.

And yet, after all the struggles, strivings, and heartburnings of the past twenty years, the more thorough pictorial photographers find themselves much where Mr. Hill left off.

II. Well, as I have said, pictorial photographers are feeling somewhat restless and somewhat unsettled ; so much that has been proclaimed as the Pathway of Art — I mean so much in the discovery of methods and material — has led nowhere.

What has become of the set pieces with dressed-up models ; of the combination printing in which mountains and mud-banks were successfully blended into one picture ; of printing through a sheet of glass until the outlines of the image became blurred and bleary; or of enlarging so that the threads of the intervening bolting-silk were visible ? Where are the " Rembrandt lightings," the " moonlight effects," and the low-toned noonday nocturnes ? Has gum-bichromate proved to be the way of salvation, or oil-printing sounded the knell of sepia drawing ?

So now the pictorial photographers find that, in spite of passing pangs of artistic progress which tempted their men to wear long locks and their women flowing gowns, they are only standing near where Hill left off ; and, if they be thoughtful, they are beginning to review the situation.

If this be true — and it is true — the way in which photographers reconsider the artistic possibilities of photography is of the utmost importance.

III. It is seldom that equal powers of memory and

PORTRAIT OF A BOY.

By D. O. Hill.

<fe How to Approach the Subject

reason are found in one and the same person ; and, although either faculty may be developed to a great extent, the particular natural power is the one that is usually cultivated.

An accurate memory is the foundation on which pure history, languages, and dogmatic theology are built up ; the gift of reason is the rock on which mathematics, science, speculative theology, and the fine arts are founded. In fact, the creator (whether he devise a picture, a sewing-machine, or a new religion) must be better endowed with a sense of logic than with a memory for detail : it was the artist of the Renaissance, and not the scholar, who planned earthworks and created fortifications.

Now, I am not arguing for one moment that the artistic mind and the mathematical mind are one, for the mathematical mind will probably lack that quality of imagination which is essential in artistic expression.

What I am really arguing is that the artistic mind belongs to the class of mind which is naturally endowed with reason rather than with accuracy of memory ; and it is precisely this quality of reasoning — of thinking out things — that will help the photographer to reconsider the artistic possibilities of photography, and enable him to start afresh where D. O. Hill left off.

A moment's thought will show that although a fine memory will enable a man to learn facts with surprising facility, and enable him to declaim them from chair, platform, or pulpit ; yet no recollection of the irregular verbs, the formulae of photography, or the details of the Mosaic law, will help him to write an original poem, or to compose an original picture.

Of course the artist may have a most excellent memory ; but there must be a deal of either logic or imagination mingled with it in order to supply the creative element and stamp the work with originality. And so we may roughly divide the artists into two classes : the idealist, who uses his memory as a foundation on which to erect a structure of convincing imagination ; and the realist, whose memory is subservient to his reason. If the imaginative artist should fail to use his reason, he becomes eccentric, sentimental, or improbable ; if the realistic artist should lack the sense of logic, he becomes an uninspired copyist, who copies Nature in a disagreeable and often faulty way.

IV. In all branches of pictorial art the quality of reason is essential, and in no branch is it so vitally essential as in photography ; for in pictorial photography the artist is taking the forces of light and chemistry and using them for artistic purposes, and consequently he must have a reasonable understanding of his materials and a reasoning grasp of the effects he intends to produce.

Some time ago I was shown a graceful study of a girl seated in a room, reading the morning paper. The reflection from the paper had thrown a pleasant white light on her chin and the front of her face, but the shadows on the side of her cheek were most unnaturally chalky.

" Hallo ! " said I, " you have used a white reflector."

" A sheet on a towel-horse," he answered. " They advise one to, in so-and-so." He mentioned a popular photographic handbook.

Here was a clear case of memory without reason. Some unreasoning Goth of the dark days of photo-

<ft How to Approach the Subject

graphy had invented the white reflector ; the unreasoning writer of the handbook had remembered the hint, and recommended the practice blindly ; and my unreasoning friend had adopted it without a moment's consideration. If the room in which the girl was portrayed had been an obviously whitewashed cell, the lighting of the shadow might not have appeared unnatural ; but in an obviously ordinary room, papered with obviously commonplace wall-paper, there could have been no conceivable object which would have cast such a white reflection into a pure shadow. When I pointed out the error, my friend saw it ; but he ought to have reasoned out the lighting for himself before ever he took the photograph.

Strange to say, I have just been shown the reflector which D. O. Hill employed to cast light into the faceshadows.

Now, in Hill's time, photography was hideously slow : exposures had to be made in the brightest lighting, and even then the shadows would come out black and devoid of detail ; so Hill set himself to devise some means of relieving the shadows in a natural way.

He must have thought of a white reflector — it is impossible to imagine that he failed to think of anything so handy and simple as a sheet flung over an easel ; but as his portraits were taken in a pure light, he wanted his shadows relieved by pure light, and not by white reflections ; so he had a large concave mirror made for the purpose of reflecting a sufficiency of pure light into the shadows.

This may seem a small matter ; but I happen to have seen Hill's mirror, and the same principle applies to all the practical part of artistic photography : it must be approached through the reasoning part of the intellect.

V. Memory, uncontrolled by reason, has always been the curse of Art. I do not allude to memory of Nature, but the memory of artistic rules and precedents.

Of course every artist must learn all he can from those that have gone before ; for if each man had to start anew, without profit from the experience of others, Art would not progress ; but he must learn through reason, and not through memory ; through convictions, and not through imitation. The mischief is that, whenever a great painter has appeared, his personal rules have been magnified into dogmas, his practices into precedents. Since every famous artist has mingled genius with individual mannerisms ; and since the mannerisms can be easily committed to tradition and imitated, whilst the genius is inimitable, the legacy is not an enviable one.

Out of this legacy the English Academicians crystallised the " Rules of Composition " and the " Canons of Art." Their recipe was simple : Take Raphael's precedents and Reynolds's teachings ; add a dash of Michael Angelo, a pinch of Titian, a sprinkling of Claude, and all the artificiality of the period ; garnish with classical allusions, and varnish to taste. The general effect of this formula may be seen in the Academy Gallery at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

In this atmosphere, and amidst these surroundings, " pictorial photography " came into existence. And, partly because the first originators of pictorial photography seemed to have missed the influence of the pre- Raphaelites and Ruskin, of Wilde, Whistler, and the Impressionists ; partly because the Royal Academy

& How to Approach the Subject

was backed by public opinion ; partly because the method of photography lent itself to the imitation of existing Art — the pictorialists absorbed the rules and canons of the Victorian period. " Detail ? " The camera could elaborate minutiae far better than Mr. Frith ! " Finish ? " Albumen and silver-print could take a polish equal to the finest painting ever varnished ! " Subject ? " The " tame models " of whom Mr. Robinson writes could dress and pose as artificially as any puppets of the painter's canvas ! " Composition ? " Retouching, sunning-down, and manipulation in printing could give a most canonical balance ! Is it strange that pictorial photography commenced on the wrong lines ?

VI. Now, to tell an Englishman of the twentieth century to pose his figures like an Italian of the sixteenth and compose his landscapes like a Frenchman of the seventeenth century is foolish ; to tell a photographer to arrange his rapid exposures so that they resemble the gradually built-up compositions of the painter is more foolish ; but to tell a rational man to do all this, not by an appeal to his reason, but because it is decreed by the canons of Art, is the most foolish thing of all.

For Photography is a new Art, who must be clothed in a new garment of her own — a garment to be fashioned with much careful thought, and not in a garment that was fashioned for Painting.

If photography is to start on a path of artistic progress, every step must be guided by reason and personal conviction ; and since the artistic side of photography is only in the process of evolution, all reasoning must be regarded as tentative.

The Inception of the Book

The modern method of education, by which girls are taught scraps of science and logic and ethics, and scraps of bibliography and bibliolatry and bibliology for all I know to the contrary — and undoubtedly scraps of bibble-babble — may not give them the accomplishments of their grandmothers, but it certainly makes them companionable.

Monica is most companionable.

" Why has not photography made more progress ? " asked Monica, throwing herself into my easy chair. We had been to the Salon the day before and were full of D. O. Hill's pictures.

" Because men won't think for themselves," I answered. ' Only very strong men think out everything fresh, and keep on improving. Strong men begin by thinking for themselves, then they begin to think of themselves and their past successes, and lastly they imitate their earlier work ; the ordinary man imitates either the strong man or the very strong man. In photography an artist must think out everything for himself."

" But surely every one must learn," suggested the girl.

" Certainly," I assented ; " but as soon as a strong man has felt his feet he takes only the advice that

J$ Leaf from my Note-Book

strikes him as strictly logical, and consequently he assimilates all he learns, and it becomes part of him."

" Why don't you write a photography book ? "

Women have a disconcerting way of changing from one subject to another.

" Why should I preach pure photography and make a heap of enemies ? I've been a gum-bichromate man myself, and I know how strongly the gum-workers feel. Besides, it would be very difficult to blend Art, Chemistry, and Physics into an interesting book."

" You might make the book about reasoning out everything," said guileful Monica.

" The book would be a most interesting book to write," I temporised.

She gave a soft little laugh. " You will write the book, Mr. Anderson."

" I would rather sit on a hornets' nest ! " exclaimed I.

" You will write the book," laughed Monica.

Since a suggested book on pure pictorial photography had become " The Book " to both of us, I suppose Monica was prophesying a certainty.

Chapter III The Artistic Quality Of The Medium

I. Now, all reasoning must start with some postulate ; and so long as this postulate can be shown to be absolutely reasonable, it will be accepted without argument by all who have common sense.

Postulate. — Each true medium of artistic expression— from oil-painting to silver-point, from wood-engraving to mezzotint — must have its own particular virtue.

Thus, when an artist wishes to depict a subject, he chooses a medium that will enable him to express himself to the best advantage : if he wishes to bring out the quality of force and richness of colouring he uses oil-paints ; if he wishes to bring out the delicate luminosity of his subject he employs water-colours : he would find wood-engraving suitable for strong effects in monochrome, and mezzotint unequalled in tone-rendering. Only a fool would think of using a process that is " nearly as good as " something else ; for the wise artist selects his medium in the belief that it will enable him to secure some special quality in his picture.

Again, if two methods gave exactly similar results, a sensible artist would choose the method that was most economical of labour and material ; and, since pictures are usually painted to be sold, common honesty would demand permanency in the medium.

& Artistic Quality of the Medium

II. So, if photography is to take a recognised place amongst the methods of artistic expression, it must have some essential quality that cannot be equalled by the employment of any other medium ; it must be sufficiently economical of both time and material to justify its adoption ; and it must give permanent results.

Besides, as there are several methods of making a photographic print which are essentially different, the printing method must comply with the above conditions.

Now, if the ordinary man were asked to mention the particular quality of photography, he would immediately answer : " The accurate drawing of detail." In fact, the word " photographic " is used by painters to describe a mechanical accuracy in the drawing of detail.

But the drawing of fine detail is not the quality of the medium, it is only the quality of one kind of photography ; for if a pinhole be pricked in a sheet of black paper and substituted for the lens, a delightful photograph may be taken, showing very soft detail — and this is as much photography as the work of the finest lens. Besides, although fine definition and accurate drawing may be very useful in the reproduction of paintings or in photographing architecture, they are often an insufferable nuisance in pictorial work, and much thought in focussing, enlarging, and printing is needed to abate the nuisance.

Granted that a drawing of fine detail may have an especial merit, as in Samuel Cooper's miniature painting, the drawing must show discrimination ; for the important parts must be drawn clearly, the unimportant parts either synchronised or suggested, and the unnecessary and irritating parts left out. The mechanical drawing of fine detail everywhere, the unimportant being depicted with the same care and precision as the important, is (excuse me) a damnable quality in pictorial work.

Stop down an expensive anastigmatic lens, and everything is sharp ; use it at a large aperture, focussing the point of interest, and the streak of definition runs right across the picture from edge to edge ; employ a soft-focus lens or a pinhole, and all is equally soft. I have never met a man who did not yearn for a lens that would leave out what he wanted to leave out, and emphasise what he wished to emphasise ; and the long and the short of it is that photography must win its place amongst the Fine Arts, in spite of the detail-drawing of the lens.

III. But, besides drawing detail, the lens draws shading ; and since photography is in reality a method of working in tone, we must look for its artistic quality in the drawing of the delicate gradations of light and shade.

The foundation of " light-drawing " lies in the fact that neither the photographic lens nor the human eye sees ordinary objects, but only the light which they reflect. The layman does not realise this, but the modern artist makes it the first principle in his painting.

Take a woman dressed in white satin, as an example : her face has form and her dress has form, but these forms are not in themselves visible. It is true that the contour and quality of these forms may be determined by the sense of touch, especially when the investigator has the sensitive hands of the blind ; but they are in themselves invisible to the sense of sight. The form of a candle flame may be perceived by sight ; but the forms of the face and dress cannot be seen unless they be illuminated from some extraneous source of light;

& Artistic Quality of the Medium

and then it is the light which they reflect that is visible and not the objects themselves. (This sounds sophistical, but it is really both sound and important, as the next passage will show.)

Where the light strikes the surface of either dress or face at such an angle that it is reflected directly back towards the eye, a high light is created ; and it is obvious that the strength and nature of these high lights will depend on the reflecting qualities of the satin and skin.

Where the light strikes the surface at such an angle that the bulk of it is reflected away from the eye, a shading is created ; and the intensity and depth of this shading depends partly on the nature of the surface, which may diffuse the light so that a portion is reflected towards the eye, and partly on the strength of the reflections from surrounding objects, which will help to light up the shaded portion. It is evident that the folds of the dress will be filled with light reflected from the surrounding satin ; and consequently the white satin will have softer shading than most of the face. It is also evident that the shading under the chin will be relieved by reflections from the satin.

Where the surface is shielded from the direct rays of light, a shadow is created ; and the intensity of this shadow will depend on the amount of light which is reflected into it from the surrounding objects.

Thus, since no one would look at the sun or any brilliant source of light if he could help it, we see all objects by the light which they reflect ; and when the strength and direction of the illuminating light is such that we see objects in a multitude of high lights, shadings, and shadows, these objects appear very beautiful. When the lighting is flat and diffused, there is but little shading and less shadow, and the objects seem uninteresting. Colour may be beautiful ; but even the most brilliant scene appears uninteresting without shadows and shading.

Now, most shadows, especially in England, are rilled with luminous diffused light and are exceedingly delicate ; and the gradation of the shadings are so delicate that no human words could describe them or human hand depict them ; and the different high lights vary in intensity. Probably mezzotint is the most perfect method of working in tone, and Raphael Smith was the most skilful of engravers ; but even the hand of Raphael Smith could not rub down the burr of a copper plate, so as to render all the gradations in his mezzotints.

Well, the lens will catch all the rays of light, just as they would reach the eye ; and it will focus every shade of gradation on the sensitive plate with even more delicacy than the shading could be focussed on the human retina ; and most of this delicacy can be secured in the negative ; and quite as much of it can be reproduced in the print as human vision is able to appreciate.

And so, unless it be denied that exceeding delicacy in tone- work is an artistic virtue, the medium of photography must be included amongst the methods of artistic expression ; and its particular quality may be defined as follows :

The Artistic Quality of Photography Lies in a Delicate Rendering of the Gradation in High Lights, Shadings, and Shadows.

IV. It may be argued, with much show of reason and many airs of superiority, that the same objection

<fe Artistic Quality of the Medium

which has been urged against the drawing of definition can also be urged against the drawing of tones and shading — that it is mechanical ; that its gradations must be placed where they are undesired, as well as where they are wanted ; but this is not so.

As far as the quality of tone-rendering is concerned, photography is an exceedingly plastic medium ; for within certain limitations, and without interfering with the purity of the tone-work, the gradations may be placed almost exactly where the photographer wants them. The scale of gradations may be condensed into a very few tones, or it may be expanded to its full limit ; the delicacy of the higher tones may be brought out whilst the shadows are simplified ; the depth and richness of the low tones may be accentuated, whilst the high tones are rendered in a few tints of grey ; the picture may be printed in either a high or low key. All this may be effected simply by exposure, development, and printing, without interfering with the purity of the medium.

Again, it may be urged that it is irrational to talk about the perfection of photographic tone-rendering and suggest its simplification, all in the same breath ; but the same argument might be applied to that delicate instrument the violin, or to that delicate medium the novel. The photographer may not wish to develop the gradations in every part of his subject, any more than the musician may wish to bring out the full tones of his violin in every passage of his music, or the novelist wish to bring out the fullness of wordpainting in every incident of his novel : the subordination of tone in some parts serves to throw up the tone in others.