Excerpt from Art in Photography: With Selected Examples of European and American Work<br><br>Graphy, or the Art of the Camera, with some degree of exactness. Most, however, of these have been foredoomed to failure by reason of the rapid developments which not only the technical but also the art side have recently undergone. What is true of its general limitations today may not be nearly so true to - morrow, next week, next month, or a year hence. There are many who are of the opinion that Photography's claim to be an art is being most surely and steadily advanced along the lines of pictorial composition the elimination either by treatment of the negative or of the print of the superfluous and the crude; and the more subtle and artistic methods of printing which have during the last decade, and even during the last five years, come into general favour with its best exponents, and have at the same time brought about so distinct and advantageous a change. But, as has been so often said, it is the spirit at the back of all photographic work, in a word the mind behind the focussing screen, and in the dark room, and the sentiment which is brought to bear when the actual print is about to be produced or the initial experiment in printing made, which may or may not go far to support the claim that the results attained are artistic. Many workers are given to take themselves - not their work - too seriously, and are prone to relegate the negative to an altogether subsidiary position as regards the picture. It is little use to adopt this course unless there be something in the training or tempera ment of the individual capable of producing that too frequently rare result, a photographic picture in which real sentiment and personal expression is evident. It is pretty safe to assert that where such results are attained they are more often than not brought about by either the trained or innate artistic perception of the worker rather than by the adoption of any of the canons which are held by some to govern the production of prints laying claim to be pictorial. Without the natural gift of artistic expression, all the art knowledge in the world will, in nine cases out of ten, when applied to photo graphy prove futile. The elements of composition which go to the making of painted pictures may be acquired, but with the camera one is confronted by a medium of expression far more uncompromising than that afforded by a colour box. It is the knowledge and intuition which brings about the softening and modifying of the uncompromising character of the results usually obtained by the camera; the power of elimination of the crude or superfluous (so far as possible) on the actual negative, and afterwards on the print itself; and the introduction of atmosphere and G B 2.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.