Guest A. Art and the Camera

G. Bell and Sons, 1907. — 274 p.In the many excellent handbooks on the technical side of photography, the amateur may find all the information necessary to make him a skilful craftsman; but guidance is not so readily available when he wishes to go a step further, and to picture his personal impression of Nature’s moods. Such an aspiration should engage sympathy, if only because of the afflicting capacity of the camera for recording the commonplace, its effrontery in stating platitudes, and its perversity in emphasizing things of no importance. It has, in fact, certain of the qualities of a bore, and seldom fails to manifest them when left to its own devices.The desire to curb this primitive tendency, which has in it something of the exuberance and assurance of uninstructed youth, and to discipline photography in the service of art, is becoming very prevalent, and it is partly the object of the present volume to show how the process of reformation is proceeding.