A CENTURY OF PHOTOGRAPHY
By E. 0. HOPPL GATHERING took place at Lacock Abbey, A Wiltshire, on . Saturday afternoon to cele- I,rate the centenary of the invention of photography . . . " states The Times of June 25th, 1934. One asks, who invented photography ? The Encyclopaedia is very definite on that point ; it says : " Photography was discovered by no one man."
Although the fact that silversalts were darkened by the action of light upon them, had been known already • in the beginning of the eighteenth century, it was not until 1822 that the Frenchman, J. Nicephore Niel-ice, of Chalons, obtained the first permanent photograph. He carried on experiments in which he was joined, a few -years later, by Daguerre, a painter. The joint inventions became ultimately known as the Daguerreotype process and were published in 1839.
In the meantime the Englishman Henry Fox Talbot had, in 1834, succeeded in producing permanent photo- graphic impressions on paper. While Daguerre used silvered copper plates which he sensitized by fuming with iodine and subtequently developed by mercury vapour, Fox Talbot produced an image on sensitized paper which he developed with gallic acid. This image was a " negative,"- the light and shade being the reverse of the original. By bringing this " negative " into contact with another sheet of sensitized paper and exposing it to light " positives " were obtained.
A century has since passed and the unbiased observer, reviewing the developments during this period, will dis- cover, probably to his surprise, that the most important progress has taken place on the technical side rather than the artistic. The manufacture of photographic plates on a commercial basis started with the introduction of the Collodion Process where a glass plate coated with a solu- tion of iodized collodion, and sensitized in the darkroom in a silver nitrate bath, was exposed in its wet state in the camera. This must have been laborious enough for the professional ; as for the amateurs I cannot imagine that their number can have been overwhelming. The process, by the way, is still in use in photo-mechanical establish- ments.
The " wet days" of the 'seventies were followed by the Dry Emulsion Process, where the base consists of gelatine instead of collodion. Continuous experiments have been carried on ever since in the laboratories of the manufac- turers, resulting in increase of speed and sensitivity to the colours of the spectrum ; absolute reliability and uniformity in manufacture and a general simplification of work. In spite of these enormous improvements that have taken place it would be difficult to find, today, many photographs of an aesthetically more satisfying nature than the early Daguerreotypes of our grand- fathers' times ; the conception of the subject is of such delicious unaffectedness and spontaneity that one turns to them with unstinted admiration.
Photography had hardly been invented, when the question arose whether this new picture-producing technique could be- regarded as a medium for artistic expression, and whether the photographic camera was a suitable medium for individual artistic feeling and conception. The French painter, Paul Delaroche, " declared in 1839 that the admirable invention of Daguerre's was going to be of infinite value for the arts." He went further and said, " From today onwards painting is dead ! " A few years later an event occurred which seemed to prove the truth of this prophecy. In 1844-45 the Scottish artist, D. 0. Hill, surprised the art-world with a series of portraits which have become the most precious creations besides which everything else pales that has been produced since ; Hill overcame the limitations of the process by an almost uncanny obser- vation and characterization of his models and his works stand isolated and unbeaten to this day.
But hardly two decades had passed after Hill's great achievement, which augured a brilliant future for photo- graphy as a medium for artistic self-expression, when it sank to a low level. - Its essential mission was misunder- stood or abused by misguided, often talentless dilettantes and untutored commercialists ; sentimental " subject pictures," imitating paintings, and pretty-pretty heads of young ladies in ambitious sizes, became : the vogue.
The question whether photography should or should not occupy a place among the arts was debated hotly and much ink has been spilt on. claim and counter-claim. Two necessary factors in the making. of the camera- craftsman are the' inspiration of the artist and a know- ledge of the extent to which the medium can respond to his visualization. Control by cultivated taste is essential if anything further than a mere record of surface-fact is to be attained. The person of a mechanical trend of mind may achieve flawless technical results and yet miss the finer essence of the spirit underlying the sub- stantial facts before him ; the machine is his master and thus fails to do more than exercise its mechanical functions, whereas in the hands of one who possesses the gift of personality and temperament it can be made the subservient instrument of his vision. Quickness of perception, keenness of observation, must accompany the aesthetic impulse to write with the finger of light his translation of mood and time in nature or life, in the few seconds that arc his while making the • exposure. This power of instant discernment is the touchstone that determines the sincere artist in photography, since con- ception and invention may not enter after that particular scientific miracle of chemical action has been wrought. - Photography possesses distinctive qualities that permit it to be judged on its own merits, it has no need of a bolstering-up by artificial aids that result in a travesty of both painting and photography, a painfully spurious article devoid of aesthetic value. The camera can be made the vehicle for the revelation of beauty according to the person who manipulates it. With continued use, in the hands of the artist, it yields more and more of that . subtle essence of its sensitive science, a revelation per- suaded by the brain behind the mechanical tool. One who relies on mere chance cannot become the master of his tools, but may rather be its slave.
The cinema-trained outlook of the public inevitably brought about a reaction from the early phase of arti- ficiality and the sentimental, and photography has now entered, after years of groping for it knew not what, a healthy stage of elasticity and adaptability which has procured for it a definite place among the crafts.
Indeed, its adaptations and uses are almost unlimited. Here are just a few that come to one's mind. To Educa- tion, Natural History, Meteorology and Astronomy photography is indispensable. Aerial photography and radiography have developed to an amazing extent. Photomicrography has revealed to us the marvels of structures such as of an insect's eye, of plants, of minerals, disclosing patterns and shapes of an entirely novel kind. Records of travel and contemporary history retain their impression on our mind more vividly through pictures than the printed word. As a mirror of events reporting has become one of the necessities of daily life.
In advertising and industry, photography ranks of equal importance with brush and pencil.
Although it sounds like a paradox, there is even such a thing as abstract photography, where a number of opaque or semi-opaque objects, not necessarily having any con- nexion each with another, are laid upon a sheet of sen- sitive paper to form a pattern or design and are then exposed to light. It is an admirable guide towards the understanding of the principles of composition and rendering of surface value, even if the experiments arc hardly more than aesthetic trifles.
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