File:The artistic side of photography in theory and practice (1910) (14595375269).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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dness of Moonlight : such a title wouldsavour too much of the ancient practice of writing This is a cow, This is a dog, underneath thedifferent objects in a painting. But if the photo-grapher would commence his picture with the idea ofbringing out the coldness of the moon, as opposed tothe warmth of the sun, he might suggest one of thequalities which is inseparable from true moonlight.When Mr. Coburn gave us The Haunted House, in1903, the essay lay chiefly in the title ; when he gaveus Trafalgar Square, in 1909, the essay lay in thepicture. II. The essay is certainly a very high form of pictorialphotography, for it not only demands a sympatheticunderstanding of Nature, combined with an imagina-tion that sees more than the obvious, but it alsorequires a complete mastery over the materials. Aman who could give an impression of a landscapebefore rain, when the eddying wind turns up the silverlining of the black poplar leaves, and the labourer 205 LONDON BRIDGE By Alvin Langdon Coburn 206
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& An Essay on Nature mutters : Its blowin up for rain, sure enough,would certainly have won his spurs in the technique,as well as in the expression of his art. Think of the possibilities of a real snowstorm againsta slate-coloured sky, as a pictorial essay on December ;think of the cold, cheerful glitter of November sun-shine on hoar-frost, of the heat of midsummer whenthe cattle are resting in the shade and the heat-wavesflickering over the meadows ; think of the possibilitiesof the coming thunderstorm, of the thunder-rainbounding up in spray off the pavement, of the heavyautumn dews on the water-meadows ; think of theessays on human life that might be caught in theStrand, in the City, in Piccadilly, each different incharacter, each full of the spirit of the locality. Thinkof all this, and then think of the men who spendthemselves on landscapes seen through girder bridges,or on the decorative curves of the fountains in ourpublic squares. The country is almost an unreadbook to the

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