Page 31 - Studio International - July August 1975

stepping off the causeway into marshland Photography,' The British Journal of
in search of will-o'-the-wisps — those Photography, December 26th 189o,
attractive flickering nothings which are pp. 823-4.
1 P. H. Emerson, 'Bubbles', Photograms of
the waste gases of the rotting material the Year 190o, p. 41.
lying beneath.
" George Davison, op. cit., p. 824.
Perhaps the best person to survey this 1 P. H. Emerson, op. cit., p. 37.
turn of the century debate and finally sum 1 The gum bichromate process was followed
it up is a photographer who lived through by the Rawlins oil process in 1904, the
the period — Paul Strand, who was born bromoil process in 1907, and several others.
in New York in 1890 : 'Gums, oils, soft- Each was developed and modified by
focus lenses, these are the worst enemies, photographers searching for the effects they
wished to produce in their work.
not of photography, which can vindicate 1 Robert Demachy, 'The Gum Bichromate
itself easily and naturally, but of Process,' The Photographic Journal, April
photographers. The whole photographic 28th 1898, p. 253.
past and present, with few exceptions, 21 This variation of the Demachy photograph
has been weakened and sterilized by the appeared with Evans's article in the Amateur
use of these things. Between the past and Photographer. But the reproduction is very
present, however, remember that there is poor, and the original does not appear to have
this distinction — that in the past these survived.
extrinsic methods were perhaps necessary 22 Frederick H. Evans, 'Notes on Three
as a part of photographic experimentation Examples of the Work of Robert Demachy,'
F. Holland Day and clarification. But there is no such The Amateur Photographer, November 12th
Motherhood 1905 excuse for their continued use today. Men 1903, pp. 39o-2.
Platinum print like Kühn and Steichen, who were 1 W. Smedley Aston, 'The Opening
Royal Photographic Society Address,' The Photographic Journal, May
masters of manipulation and diffusion, 31st 19o2, p. 124.
Carrière's method of wiping out paint to have themselves abandoned this 1 Robert Demachy, 'Monsieur Demachy's
produce form — a trick which Sickert interference because they found the Opening Address,' The Photographic
detected in Carrière's portrait of result was a meaningless mixture, not Journal, April 3oth 1901, p. 258.
Verlaine and condemned as 'la peinture painting, and certainly not photography. 2"M. Robert Demachy on Some Points of
Contact in the Monochrome Arts',
creuse', hollow painting, in which the And yet photographers go right on today translated by Alfred Maskell from La Revue
process used to achieve the effect was one gumming and oiling and soft-focusing de Photographie, The Amateur
of subtraction rather than addition, without a trace of that skill and conviction Photographer, February 26th 1903, pp. 163-4.
producing concave instead of convex which these two men possessed, who 1 It is not exaggerating to say that in some
forms. have abandoned it. Of course, there is instances the lithographs of Belleroche are
Few, I think, would agree with nothing immoral in it. And there is no hardly distinguishable from the photographs
Steichen's assessment of Carrière's work reason why they should not amuse of Demachy — at least in reproduction. The
today; nearer the truth is R. H. themselves. It merely has nothing to do immediate distinguishing feature upon
Wilenski's comment that after the with photography, nothing to do with viewing the originals is size — the
lithographs are much larger than the
Impressionists 'the photographic vision painting, and is a product of a photographs.
took a terrible hold on the less intelligent misconception of both.' 3 7 27 George Bernard Shaw, 'Some Criticisms
artists in France.' Unfortunately it was of the Exhibitions', The Amateur
often these less intelligent painters whom Photographer, October 16th 1902, p. 307.
the 'artist photographers' followed. F. 1 When Emerson announced his
Holland Day's Motherhood (and there `Renunciation', he reported that 'misgivings
were many photographic Motherhoods seized me after conversations with a great
during this period) is a bad photograph artist after the Paris Exhibition.' It is likely
produced in misplaced homage to a bad 1 This was Du Maurier's first contribution to that this 'great artist' was Whistler.
29 In an article in Camera Notes for July 1900
painting. Sickert's comments on Carrière Punch: October 6th 186o, p. 140. the critic Sadakichi Hartmann suggests that
Edward Steichen, A Life in Photography,
apply also to those photographers who New York, 1963, before plate 3 (no modification and suppression 'could help the
blindly followed him into the pagination). composition and enable one to obtain
mists of sentimentality : 'The world of his 3 George Bernard Shaw, 'The Exhibitions — Whistleresque effects.' He writes of 'the
canvases is a world of tears, of the I', The Amateur Photographer, October 1 ith pictorial possibilities of a Japanese kimono'
moanings, partings and eternal regrets of 19o1, p. 282. and proposes that such a picture should
shadowy heads, in which nothing is The conservative position can be seen in portray a particular mood and suggest
material but the eyes — eyes like boot- Burne-Jones's evidence at the trial of `emotions in the presence of a Japanese
buttons in their insistent and solid Whistler v Ruskin in 1878, when he stated gown.' This may predate the Demachy
detachment from impalpable that detail was essential to a work of art and photograph.
1 Paul Strand, 'Photography and the New
criticized the want of finish in Whistler's
surroundings. In France, to criticize paintings. God,' Broom, Vol. 3, 1922, No. 4, pp. 252-8.
Carrière would, I am sure, seem almost James McNeill Whistler, The Gentle Art of 31 Robert Demachy, 'The American New
like a slight on maternity. But Making Enemies, second edition, London, School of Photography in Paris,' Camera
maternity, to most of us, is, fortunately, a 1892, p. 128. Notes, Vol. V, No. I, July 1901, p. 40.
sunny recollection, in essence both Steichen, op. cit., before plate 13. 32 Charles H. Caffin, Photography as a Fine
palpable and delightful. The plain man, Joseph Gale, 'The Natural in Photography,' Art, New York, 1901, p. 16o.
unaided by aesthetic bear-leaders, does, The Amateur Photographer, October 25th Sadakichi Hartmann, 'Portrait Painting
I am certain, repudiate in his heart these 1889, p. 273. and Portrait Photography,' Camera Notes,
howling and ghostly impressions of what 8 P. H. Emerson, Naturalistic Photography Vol. III, July 1899, No. 1, p. 18.
for Students of the Art, London, 1889, 1 Eduard (Edward) Steichen, 'The American
has always seemed to him the happiest School,' The Photogram, Vol. VIII, No. 85,
36 pp. 17-18.
relation.' 9 Ibid., p. 23. January 1901, pp. 4-6.
Investigation of manipulative printing 10 H. P. Robinson, Pictorial Effect in 31 For details of the ébauche technique and
processes produced remarkable Photography, London, 1869, pp. 144-5. discussion of 'effect' in French nineteenth-
`photographs', but it can be argued with 1 George Davison, 'Impressionism in century painting, see The Academy &
justification that the same pressures Photography', The British Journal of French Painting in the Nineteenth Century by
which produced the seductively attractive Photography, December 26th 189o, p. 822. Albert Boime, London, 1971. It is possible
work of Demachy also produced the 12 George Davison, 'Pinhole Photography,' that both Demachy and Steichen knew
`pictorial' school, which still dominates The Amateur Photographer, April 2nd 1897, Carrière — Steichen through his friendship
with Rodin.
amateur photographic circles, and might p. 272. 36 Walter Sickert, A Free House, London,
13 Gleeson White, Photograms of '95, p. 6.
well be called fossilized photography. It is 1 P. H. Emerson, 'A Renunciation,' The 1947, pp. 126-7.
probable that photographers will always British Journal of Photography, January 23rd 1 Paul Strand, 'The Art Motive in
be tempted to produce 'artistic' 1891, p. 54. Photography,' The British Journal of
photographs, but in doing so they are 15 George Davison, 'Impressionism in Photography, October 5th 1923, p. 613.
II