File:The artistic side of photography in theory and practice (1910) (14759047496).jpg

Identifier: artisticsideofph00ande (find matches)
Title: The artistic side of photography in theory and practice
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: Anderson, A. J. (Arthur James), b. 1863
Subjects: Photography
Publisher: London, S. Paul & Co
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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only oneself in the stalls, sentimentalityis to be abhorred by all wholesome and healthypersons. I have written of sentimentality at some length,because I want it to stand out most clearly fromsympathy, which is a natural and healthy sentiment ;and I instance Mr. Keighleys Adieu as an exampleof thoroughly wholesome sympathy. If a clerkswife were to come to the garden gate each morningto kiss her husband good-bye before he went off tothe City, one might feel that the display of affectionwas a trifle too public ; but if a wife were seeing herhusband off to Australia, she would be a self-consciousfool if she were ashamed to kiss him publicly. It isthe fact that the father is going off to the fishing-ground that makes his kissing his small daughter sucha manly action ; the tense pose of the mother, as sheprevents the child from overbalancing, gives a touchof robustness to the group ; the subject shows anartistic sympathy in the photographer, and the pictureis both natural and bracing. 216
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217 4£ Sympathy Thus we find all the elements of artistic sympathyin Mr. Keighleys Adieu : (a) A subject worthy of sympathy; a subject that can be depicted without violating anyof the canons of good taste, or trespassing onany ones privacy ; (b) A treatment that shows the artist to have been in sympathy with his subject ; (c) A choice and treatment of subject which shows that the artist has taken his public into hisconfidence, and both gives and expectssympathy. III. This leads us to the inherent fault of thecultivated Englishman : he has learnt to abhor senti-mentality, and having also learnt to keep a firm handon any outward display of emotion—especially if heshould happen to have been educated at one of thepublic schools—he is apt to be (or to appear to be)unsympathetic. In all forms of artistic expression, music, literature,and painting, we meet with the same defect—eitherthe artist does not feel his subject very strongly, orelse he is too reserved to express himself freely

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