Art
Photography and Its Purpose THE Annual Exhibition of the Royal Photographic Society, now being held (till October 10th) at 35, Russell Square,
creates a questioning attitude in the mind of the visitor.
The excellent quality of the material exhibited goes without saying. But the use to which photography is being put seems open to serious question. Much of the exhibition represents the effort, as it were, to create an Art." It shows that artist-photographers are giving more attention to very elaborate composition than to anything else. A comparison between the relative merits of such photo- graphy and painting unquestionably goes in favour of the painter. So far as modern taste in painting goes, " photographic" likenesses are definitely at a discount. How, then, do serious art critics praise this exhibition with so little reserve ? Either taste is wrong (which is quite possible) or this branch of photography—the " artistic " side—is completely sterile and should be fiercely discouraged.
Still-lifer, snow-seapes, horses ploughing along a sky-line and the rest, surely are such subjects which should be left to the painter.
This general argument is reinforced by the difficulty experienced by the most skilled photographers using the best technical resources in obtaining adequate rendering of colour. It may therefore be reasonably suggested that creative photography should be primarily scientific in purpose and may also be used as the recording agent where human
observation is too slow or the eye too limited an instrument. Photography employed as a recording medium is not Nvithout a beauty of its own, as is shown by Splits in the
Air," by Yvonne, Seashore Design," by E. R. Sleep, Am der Kirche," by A. Angyalfi, and a little negro girl in a wash tub by Miss Pat Liveright. Beyond these few, many of the exhibits in the print and portrait section show a certain similarity with those pictures found in lodging-houses, perhaps best typified by that well-known masterpiece of long-horned Scottish cattle in a misty upland glen.
However, though this undesirable side of photography is the largest single section of the exhibition, more scientific work is admirably represented. Undoubtedly the most remarkable example is a large print taken by Captain Stevens of the U.S. Army Air Corps during a stratosphere flight.
This picture shows not only the curvature of the earth but also the division between the troposphere—the dust-laden region of vertical air currents and clouds—and the stratosphere where there is nearly constant temperature, no dust and no air turbulence. The picture was taken more than 13 miles above ground, and perhaps the most significant fact about it is that it results entirely from light the eye cannot see. The most unpleasant—and yet possibly the most useful exhibits—are those by Lt.-Col. Burke and N. W. Hewitt. These show the gruesome effects of poste-arsphenamine pig- mentation (a kind of skin disease) and an ulcer on a patient's chin in full colour. Such reproductions could clearly be used for diagnosis and treatment by the medically ignorant if available in the back-woods. Here, and in the high speed and micro-photography section, the exhibition provides an opportunity of reviewing the real achievements of photography. While the manufacturers' and trade section of the Exhibition may not be its most important purpose, the convenience of having so much apparatus from different suppliers on view under one roof will be appreciated by the advanced amateur photographer. The remarkable strides made in so-called miniature photography, here exemplified by Leitz's Leica and Zeiss' Contax and Contaflex, gives an excellent idea of the progress made in the combination of engineering skill and optical knowledge. The huge and satisfactory enlarge-
ments by Kodak from tiny negatives show that results equally-successful with those achieved by large and cumbersome
cameras may be gained in the majority of applications of photography by the miniature-camera user. Those suppliers who illustrate the excellence of their wares by photographs
would do well in future to give data such as stop and exposure on each print, -since this would not only constitute a valuable guide to the amateur but also a true gauge of comparison between the various exhibits. Without these data the exhibitions of Rays "& Ilford, to take the best examples,
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