Photography for Archaeologists. By M. B. Cookson. (Max Parrish. 15s.)
MR. COOKSON has been photographing archwological sites and objects for over a quarter of a century, and now practises and teaches this visual art in the Institute of Archeology of the University of London. His friends, his pupils, and hundreds of young archeologists who do not know hill personally but who have so often seen his anonymous work in the pages of journals and books will welcome his advice and help, so succinctly put together, in this small book. This is a humourless book, but then the camera does not lie (although Sir Mortimer Wheeler in his preface to it says, 'the camera Is an awful liar'), and without lies and anecdotes we are down to the basic facts of cameras, lenses, light, and dark rooms. Mr. Cookson tells us we must never use retouch, that we must always keep our sites clean, and never take an archteological photo- graph without a scale (although it is nice to observe he prints several of his own here without scales!). He prefers 12 by 10 plate cameras to miniature, hand and retie% cameras, and insists they do better work; his own photographs, which illustrate this book, prove what excellent work they do achieve in skilled hands. This book is most welcome as an attempt to pass on the technical skill of a master archmological photographer to the many who are still learning this difficult craft.
Previous page
