Naturalistic Photography for Students of the Art.

by P. H. Emerson

This Work contains a valuable Essay on “Landscape,” including Photography, by the landscape painter T. F. Goodall, and should be studied by all Photographers.

(Sampson Low & Co., Ld., St. Dunstan’s House, Fetter Lane, E.C.)

Opinions of the Press.

“We feel grateful to Dr. Emerson and Mr. Goodall for a most fascinating volume. There is something singularly characteristic and attractive in the scenery of the Norfolk Broads, as there is much that is peculiar and picturesque in the manners of the primitive population.... The series of illustrations seem to embrace and exhaust the whole range of local subjects. We are taken through wildernesses of wood and water, through[through] sedgy solitudes, haunted by shy waterfowl, along winding river-reaches with wherries under sail. We are landed in quaint nooks of that watery world, where the tumble-down cottage of the fisherman or the fowler hangs over the rushy creek; we see the lonely farmhouse, with its sedge-thatched and straggling outbuildings, standing somewhat apart between marsh and cloudland; or the sequestered hamlet huddled round the little church, with the rude spire which is a landmark for leagues along the water-ways. We are shown the amphibious people following their multifarious occupations, with their farming, and their fishing, and their strange fashions of fishing.... The set of landscapes which close[close] the volume are excellent as works of art, and they give an admirable idea of the somewhat melancholy charms of the scenery, when it does not happen to be lighted up by brilliant sunshine.”—The Times.

“Good wine needs no bush, and the Norfolk scenery needs no praise; but one may blamelessly sing in praise of good wine and the singing be but good, and write of or photograph Norfolk meritoriously. This Messrs. Emerson and Goodall have done, and done well, for which they deserve much thanks.”—Saturday Review.

“The life depicted in this charming series of photographs is still redolent of the past. The wide expanse of flowery pasture-land, the smooth and pellucid waters, the picturesque craft, and the hardy good-humoured Broadsmen with their nets and meaks, are admirably represented, while the descriptive letterpress will recall many of his own experiences to the reader familiar with East Anglian waters.”—Morning Post.

“Dr. Emerson has in this work applied the art of photography in so triumphant a manner, that the fitful breezes are clearly caught on the water, and seen playing amongst the heads of the reeds.... We can vouch for their wonderful fidelity to Nature. Nothing like it has ever been published.”—The Field.

“‘Life and Landscape on the Norfolk Broads’ is a book of unique artistic interest.... The prevailing tone of the pictures is restful and subdued. There is much of quiet cloudy sky and long evening light. And the general impression left by the illustrations, even when representing the characteristic industries of the Norfolk work-a-day world, is singularly free from anything approaching to hurry and turmoil. The claims of photography to rank among the true means of artistic production were never better exhibited than in this series of studies.... They leave no possible doubt of Dr. Emerson’s manipulatory skill, or of the tasteful discrimination of the fellow art-workers.”—The Globe.

“‘Life and Landscape on the Norfolk Broads’ is the name of a really beautiful book.... The text is descriptive, and pleasantly descriptive, of the scenes reproduced from nature.... We have seldom, perhaps never, seen such successful studies of landscape made by any mechanical process....”—Daily News.

“It is enough to know that they are exquisitely beautiful. It has sometimes been contended that photography is not art. That view has had to be modified. It has been shown that in the hands of artists photography can be used with admirable effect. If proof of this be required, it will be found in this volume. There is nothing of the wooden stiffness of the old photographs about the pictures.... Some of them might be reproductions in monochrome of Corot’s pictures. Light and shade are exquisitely managed. Every picture is arranged with the truest taste.... Then all the plates are redolent of the spirit of the scene.”—Scotsman.