You are here
قراءة كتاب Pictorial Photography in America 1920
تنويه: تعرض هنا نبذة من اول ١٠ صفحات فقط من الكتاب الالكتروني، لقراءة الكتاب كاملا اضغط على الزر “اشتر الآن"
Pictorial Photography in America 1920
service. His enthusiasm was soon imparted to fellow members of the Newark Camera Club, and there quickly followed the birth of the Red Triangle Camera Club, affiliated with the local Y. M. C. A. Its object was pithily expressed in its slogan, “A picture of home to every soldier overseas”—at least to every Newark soldier in service.
While the members of the Camera Club were prompted solely by a desire to serve, it was not long before there came responses in the form of letters of gratitude from the soldier boys that heartened them to renewed activity. The written messages frequently attested that the pictures of the home folks sent by the Camera Club members were the only ones that had reached foreign shores.
As a stepping stone to something even greater, we have organized the Associated Camera Clubs of America, with a view to linking the activities of camera clubs and societies, the end to be sought being the creating of greater interest in exhibitions, [pg 9] and interchanges of lantern slides and prints. The prime object, of course, is to promote and cultivate the art-sense through the science of photography.
If a camera club does not exist in the community in which the reader resides, lend your services to the formation of one. The members of the Associated Camera Clubs of America stand ready to do their utmost to assist an infant organization on its way to success.
Pictorial Photograpny in Maine
Maine, the State of forest and lakes, does not hold the position in pictorial photography warranted by her natural beauties. It would not be unreasonable, considering the advantages of the land and the opportunities offered by the varying atmospheric conditions, particularly along the coast, to expect that there would be many pictorialists of high rank in the State; but it is a lamentable fact that there are not. After all, the making of pictures with a camera is to a large extent a matter of education and training—not so much in the way of overcoming the technical difficulties of the medium, though of course this must be learned too, but in such vital matters as composition, choice of subject matter, unity, simplicity, and the like. Then, given the vision, the pictorial photographer is born.
This preliminary training and the art education of the beginner can best be obtained in clubs; and in Maine the two centers of photographic activity are Portland and Bangor, in both of which cities are active camera clubs, each affiliated with the local art society and each holding annual exhibitions in the spring of the year, at which workers from all parts of the country show their pictures. During the war these clubs have been doing little more than marking time, but now that at last days of peace have come again, we feel that the future holds prospects of great promise to us. For one reason or another the men whose names were known ten or fifteen years ago seem to have dropped out and their places are being filled by new blood, men with high ideals and aspirations, who are not content merely with reproducing, by means of their cameras, pretty scenes and places, but who believe that photography is capable of much more—of showing not only the physical facts, but the very spirit of nature herself—a true impressionism; and it is the task of these men to place Maine in the position she should hold in pictorial work.
During the past year much has been accomplished by a very few men, and through these men Maine has been represented at all the largest and best salons, not only in this country and Canada, but also in England at the London Salon. Prints by the multiple gum process are favored by some of the Portland workers, but the use of this process as a medium of expression is limited to a few men, [pg 10] and the most of the large prints produced are enlargements on bromide paper, as is probably the case generally throughout the country. This is perhaps somewhat to be regretted, for although bromide paper is capable of producing very fine prints when the subject is exactly adapted to it, still it does not permit of the personal control afforded by some of the other processes, and of course this is a handicap to the pictorial worker.
As before stated, the pictorial output of the State during the past year has been limited to the work of a few men, but this condition is not going to continue for long. The clubs and societies are bending every effort toward the encouragement of the new workers, and already some very creditable work has been produced, and the coming year should see a worthy showing from Maine at all the salons.
Pictorial Photography in Massachusetts
In Massachusetts, as in other parts of the country, war-time activities interfered to a noticeable extent with the cause of pictorial photography. The interference was perhaps less marked than in some other sections, where more of the prominent workers were actively engaged at the front. The difficulty in securing materials, amounting now and then to utter impossibility, was, however, the same, and there was the same falling off in enthusiasm, due to the demands on one's heart and pocketbook from across the sea. In this crisis organized effort might have been especially helpful, but it is just in this respect that Massachusetts has always been weak. Her workers have been widely scattered from the Berkshires to the shore, and such local clubs as have here and there existed have not been deeply or permanently influential. In Boston there was the once famous Photo Clan, with Garo, Eicheim, and Schuman as its leading spirits, but that has long since ceased to be an active force. On the other hand, the Boston Young Men's Christian Union Camera Club and the Boston Society of Arts and Crafts have lately come into new prominence through their efforts to stimulate interest and afford frequent opportunities to view exhibitions of the best in photographic art. The former held, during the past winter, excellent one-man exhibits, in which work of such prominent pictorialists as John Paul Edwards, Dr. Rupert Lovejoy, Dwight A. Davis, Francis O. Libby, John H. Garo, Edward H. Weston, and Arthur Hammond was shown.
But, in spite of these various influences, the workers of Massachusetts for the most part pursue solitary ways, with little enough—all too little, some would say—of the advantages that come from intimate association. There is, however, another side of the shield. It is at least questionable whether such strongly marked personality as appears in the work of Seeley, Garo, Davis, Hammond, Eicheim, [pg 11] Buttler, the Allen sisters, and a dozen others who might be mentioned, would be possible if the workers of this section were under the closely dominating influence of a centralized group, itself dominated by a single individual of exceptional powers. Such a state of affairs has sometimes been observed in other parts of the country, and the results have not always been advantageous to the interests of the individual workers. Under such conditions as exist in Massachusetts, the Pictorial Photographers of America has come as a boon, since it affords just the kind of stimulus most needed. Massachusetts has been swift to avail herself of the advantages thus offered. At the recent exhibition of the work of New England and New Jersey pictorialists, held in New York, Massachusetts was represented by 16 out of a total of 27 exhibitors, with 64 out of a total of 107 prints—a showing decidedly creditable to the old Bay State.
Pictorial Photograpky in Maryland
The progress of pictorial photography in Maryland is to be ascertained by an examination of the progress of the amateur in Baltimore, for aside from the local exhibitions we have no record of anything done in the State. While this condition is regrettable and hard to comprehend in an art-loving center of such population, there is none the less an improvement over former times.
The shops and the “finishers” have prospered, while the club—the old organization in which the reason of being has been lost in a maze of constitutional amendments, by-laws, and such like red tape—has declined in influence and popularity. In the world at large, pictorial photography has grown amazingly. This has led to a more pronounced line of demarkation between the dilettante and the intelligent worker of appreciation, with the balance of influence inclining strongly to the latter. In Maryland there has been an upheaval, a photographic revolution, so to speak, and out of the wreckage has sprung the Photographic Guild of Baltimore, which has done more to put Maryland photographically to the fore in its five years of activity than had been done in all the years previous. It was due almost entirely to Guilders that Maryland stood fourth at the recent Pittsburgh Salon. Two prerequisites to membership in the Guild are ability in keeping with the highest standards and productiveness, as a consequence of which it has only six members, who may be said to comprise the representative pictorialists of the State.
For the past four years there has been an annual exhibition under the auspices of the Guild at the Peabody Gallery, each well attended by the art-loving public, with marked enthusiasm for what is being done with the process. A feature of the Guild exhibitions, beginning with the 1919 portfolio recently hung, is the invited work of out-of-town amateurs, which is giving Baltimoreans a wider and better [pg 12] knowledge. While this exhibition has not assumed salon proportions, it will in a measure bring the salons to Baltimore if help in the way of prints from outside is forthcoming, as we hope and believe will be the case.
On the whole, it may be truly said that the flexibility and responsiveness of the photographic process have been sufficiently demonstrated to fix it firmly among the art mediums.
Middle West Activities and the Pittsburgh Salon
Any article describing the activity in pictorial photography in the United States since 1914 must include a history of the work of the Pittsburgh Salon, and that has been very thoroughly covered in magazine articles immediately succeeding the close of each salon.
At the outbreak of the war, the thoughts and energies of many of our foremost workers were directed toward other fields, and those who still practiced the work for the art side of it did so under difficulties.
The governmental restrictions placed on the use of the camera in ports and about all public buildings, and in many sections of nearly every city, naturally had a tendency to discourage workers, but in spite of all the obstacles in the path of the art photographer the years have not been barren.
Some of the older societies have all but ceased to exist, if one can judge by their contributions to the salons.
Each year has witnessed new names among the exhibitors at Pittsburgh, and to an already formidable list there are annually added more than enough names to fill the vacancies caused by the dropping of former members who have failed to retain their membership due to non-compliance with the rules which automatically eliminate inactives.
After six years of unprecedented success it may safely be said that the Pittsburgh Salon has become a permanent fixture in the world of photographic art and has unquestionably rendered a most valuable service in keeping alive the exhibition spirit.
Mention should also be made of the good work done by the Chicago Photo-Fellows, the Buffalo Camera Club, the Photographic Guild of Baltimore, and the Photographic Section of the Pittsburgh Academy of Fine Arts, each one composed of enthusiasts, who loyally support the American and London Salons as well as being active workers in the Pictorial Photographers of America.
These societies have been continually engaged in the promotion of inter-club exhibitions as well as in encouraging the circulation of work of individual members.
As an educational feature the club interchange has no equal.
[pg 13]