Incredible indeed seems the all-pervading power of this light-bearing goddess. Next to printing, photography is the greatest weapon given to mankind for his intellectual advancement. The mind is lost in wonderment at the gigantic strides made by this art in its first fifty years of development, and we feel sure if any one will take the trouble to inquire briefly what photography has done and is doing in every department of life he will be astonished by the results of his inquiries.
Branches of photography.
From what has been said it is very evident that the practice of photography must be very different in the different branches of human knowledge to which it is applied.
Aim of Naturalistic photography.
The application of its practice and principles has been most ably treated in some of these branches, especially the scientific branches, but hitherto there has been no book which gives only just sufficient science for art-students and at the same time treats of the art side.
We propose in this book to treat photography from the artistic standpoint. We shall give enough science to lead to a comprehension of the principles which we adduce for our arguments for naturalistic photography, and we shall give such little instruction in art as is possible by written matter, for art we hold is to be learned by practice alone. That, then, is our aim, and no one knows better than ourselves how far short of our ideal we have fallen, but we trust the task as attempted may do a little good and lead some earnest wandering workers into the right path. We know that we have not accomplished our task without errors, all we plead is that we have endeavoured to reduce the number to a minimum, and where we have failed we trust those who detect our failures will kindly, not carpingly, communicate them to us, so that if we ever reach a second edition we may therein be regenerated.
Contents of book.
The photographic student, whose aim is to make pictures, will find in this book all directions, such as the choosing of apparatus, the science which must be learned, the pictures and sculpture which must be studied, the art canons which are to be avoided, the technique to be learned, including all manipulations; the fundamental principles of art, and a critical résumé of conventional art canons, including much other advice.
In addition to this the book is an argument for the Naturalistic school of photography, of which we preached the first gospel in an address delivered before the members of the Camera Club in London in March, 1886.[[1]]