Page 7 - Is the Camera the Friend or Foe of Art - The Studio - June 1893

ls the Camera the Friend or Foe of Art?

I hardly think we are yet in a position to pronounce but of inanition. It is the suggestion of sus-
on the effect of the camera on art for good or evil tained action that the artist desires to obtain, for
on the whole, since its true use in relation to art that suggests vitality. If the leaves of trees at a
has not yet been determined. certain distance, were painted rigidly against a sky,
In painting, so far as photography has taken the they would appear artificial, but if the artist could
place of other studies, and has induced the painter suggest that they were moving, he would at the
to consciously attempt photographic renderings of same time suggest life and so be more like Nature.
fact and aspect, the effect has been for evil to my There is a kind of painting, which resembles
mind, as the scientific registering of certain facts photography, called " still life." I do not under-
and accidents of aspect is one thing, and the stand its meaning. It is a contradiction of terms,
selection, treatment, and feeling—the impression, for nothing is still that lives. Life is the greatest
in short, of the painter's mind—quite another. and most beautiful fact of Nature. Does the
So far as photographs are used, like all other photographic camera help him here ? I think not ;
material, as sources of study and suggestion, they but in different fields the camera has brought us
are helpful to both painter and designer alike. benefits I should be the last to deny.—Yours faith-
Photography, of course, has its own distinct and fully,
peculiar beauty, just as creative art has ; and I ALFRED EAST.
believe, in the long run, the camera will do good 4 GROVE END ROAD, N.W.
service in defining the essential difference between
imitative and inventive art.—Very faithfully yours,
From Mr. J. L. NETTLESHIP.
WALTER CRANE.
13 HOLLAND STREET, W. DEAR SIR,—In my experience, photographs of
animals in action are a pure gain in so far as they
From Mr. G. DU MAURIER.
enable one to analyse the action—i.e., learn how it
SIR, In answer to your letter I regret to say that is produced. But they are very seldom of use to
I have been unable as yet to form any opinion on copy from, because they record only a part of a
the question of the influence of photography on art. movement which is perceived by the eye as a whole.
It seems to me a large question, and one requir- In this branch of the subject convention should be
ing much thought and experience before one can the result of observation by the quickest and keenest
have and express any opinion about it. Should eyes, and to these the camera can be nothing but a
one occur to me I will send it.—Faithfully yours, benefit, as helping and verifying observation ; but
G. DU MAURIER. an undiscerning use of (say) Mr. Muybridge's
NEW GROVE HOUSE, HAMPSTEAD, N.W. plates would be worse than any existing convention,
while faulty or careless observation needs no camera
From Mr. ALFRED EAST, R.I. to detect it. As to animals in repose or slight
SIR,—It is doubtful if photography is of much action, it is needless to mention the service done
practical advantage to the painter of landscape. If by the photographs of Henry Dixon;* Gambier,
it saves him the trouble of going to Nature for the Bolton, and Anschutz in discrediting the artistic
details of the foreground of his picture, it would wild beasts of the past.—Yours faithfully,
deprive him of the knowledge he would gain of the J. T. NETTLESHIP.
character and colour of those details were he to go 58 WIGMORE STREET, W.
to Nature herself. The camera, having no power
of selection, records with, the same prominence
From Mr. JAMES ORROCK, R.I.
vulgar forms as well as the refined ; the aim of the
artist, on the contrary, is to select only what will SIR,—Photography is of great use for reference
illustrate his theme, and the suitability of the selec- in architecture, ornamentation, designs of all kinds
tion is one of the greatest qualities of his art. on wood, metals, fabrics, &c. When colour is
It is even doubtful if the instantaneous record wanted it is, of course, of no value.
of the movements of animals and birds and the Photography is also of service for reference to
reflections in moving water are as useful to the artistic manuscripts, signs, and signatures. Painters,
artist as they are interesting to the scientific, for if especially landscape painters, sometimes use it, by
the pose of an animal or bird was taken by the
By the kindness of Messrs. H. Dixon & Co. we are
camera at a point where the eye could not follow, permitted to reproduce two of the photos to which Mr.
the result would be, not the sense of movement, Nettleship refers, on pp. 95, 96 of this number.—ED.
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