Naturalistic Photography for Students of the Art.

by P. H. Emerson

The sentiment and detail must always be appropriate or the result is a travesty. Thus haymakers do not wear new-fashioned buttoned boots, nor do rustics wear sun-bonnets and aprons all clean and fashionably cut. But this is only a superficial matter, the artist must carry appropriateness much deeper than in mere costume; for example, a flock of sheep on a pasture may be made quite false in sentiment, if they are driven in a way that suggests a march to the slaughter-house, and they very easily huddle together in a manner that suggests that final procession. The student will now see how subtle all these matters are, and how little yet how much divides the masterpiece from mediocrity. Some photographers think naturalism consists only in taking things as they are, and they will exclaim, if you criticize their work, “Oh! it was just like that any way.” True, oh ingenuous one, but it was just some other way as well, and perhaps that other way might have given a work of art, whereas this way has given a bald and uninteresting fact. Selection or composition is a most subtle matter, and one very difficult to learn, but let the student persevere, and if he has the ability he will find that the scales will fall from his eyes as he goes on.

IMPRESSION.

Impression.

The impression must be true throughout, and if all the preceding components are true the impression will be true.

Our student may now have carried out all these things and yet there may be no picture, his mind may be commonplace. He may have wasted a good technique on a commonplace subject, such as a yacht going in full sail, an express train, some very ordinary dogs or horses, or some very extraordinary men or women. We are then brought to a very important matter, the subject.

SUBJECT OF THE PICTURE.

Subject.

The subject must have pictorial qualities, it must be typical, and must give æsthetic pleasure. The student must look for elegance and a distingué air in his subject. You will find that the best pictures will be of those subjects which hit you hardest in nature, those which strike you so much that you feel an irresistible desire to secure them.

Art of feeling nature.

You must then train your feelings, for, as John Constable said, “the art of feeling nature is a thing almost as much to be cultivated as the art of reading the Egyptian hieroglyphics.” You must then, when you have felt your subject, be resolute and only take in what is necessary to express your subject; this is the text of the artist. Everything must be harmonious and comfortable, but that alone will not suffice any more than will the subject alone. Everything must be in keeping in the picture. The artist must be in sympathy with his subject, “entrer dans la même peau,” as the French say. He must have no preconceived notion of how he is going to do a subject, but take all his suggestions from nature and humbly follow them and lovingly portray them. Pure imitation of nature (even if it were possible) won’t do, the artist must add his intellect, hence his work is an interpretation. To photograph a “flying express” so that it looks as if standing still is imitation, to render it with the suggestion of motion by its smoke and steam is an interpretation. The great question which the student should ask himself is: My aim, what is it? If that be serious and honest, and not feeble and vainglorious, he is all right. Remember that the aim of art is to give æsthetic pleasure, and that artists are the best judges of this matter, and you will find that so good is their training that they often elevate the meanest things they touch.