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A Difficulty in Art-PhotographyAuthor(s): T. Dwight Parkinson and A. N. LindenmuthSource: The Monthly Illustrator, Vol. 5, No. 16 (Aug., 1895), pp. 206-207Published by:Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25582084 .
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A 1)1 tFFJI( U LTY I N' A 1RT-'P H OTO G R A P H Y
1)y T. 1DWIGH1T 1'ARKKINS.)N
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WIrHOUT venturing into argument, it may be observeed thiat the lirst effor-t of
photography, after a success had been miade of portraiture, was to reproduce bluiid
ings anid landscapes, and for a long time the interest and object of the operator
was technical or co:nmercial ratlher thani artistic. Hence Ruskini's outburst, that
he would rather halve a sketch of a singole tuLft of daisies, or sometlhilng eqUally
small, thanl a photograph of the girdle of the earthl made on1 thic equator, hacl a
basis which now even that grouty philosopher must confess no longer exists to pro
voke him. Everyonie will admit that, granted the best techlnical result, a p)hoto
graph of a landscape nmay now be made vhich will approach, in the estimlatioll of
most persons, a monotint drawing of the same scene und(ler similar- conditions. It
is true that the credit lies with the mani etlually i niot more thani with the instru
ment ; but that is true of the sketch or painting. But the composing of groups before the camera is a different andc undoub)tectUy
hiaher undertaking. Mien are regarded ais better thani machines because they have
brains and can think. But in some situationis men, and especially woomen, are the
If
F 7,t a / Al, r-/z h A. N. Lind'nmut/h FAGIN S )EN: \N ILLUS'rltATIO)N IF(7R "OLVI IT WIS' I
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A Difficulty in Art-Photography 207
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Front aphzoograjO ? by.A. A . Linden,,zuit THIE 1FIRX TAL- 01F iSLEEPING; IIEAUTY' '
better for not thinking, or at anly rate for not discriminating; and one of these
situationis is when they are placed before a camera to help tell a story in the cluImb
3how of a genre composition, or some sort of a personification. Then self-con
sciousness stiffens limbs that are never so willino, and stamps the countenanice with
a certain anxiety, though it may be so faintly that the all-revealing lens alone de
tects it. This subjective difficulty is so great that Mr. Lindenmuth deservres no
little praise for his success in approaching naturalness of expression in his figures,
the face of the woman in the tall chair being especlally noteworthy in this respect.
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