The photographic news

• Bandzählung: 29.1885
• Erscheinungsdatum: 1885
• Sprache: Englisch
• Signatur: F 135
• Vorlage: Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig
• Digitalisat: Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig
• Digitalisat: SLUB Dresden
• Rechtehinweis: Public Domain Mark 1.0
• URN: urn:nbn:de:bsz:14-db-id1780948042-188500006
• PURL: http://digital.slub-dresden.de/id1780948042-18850000
• OAI: oai:de:slub-dresden:db:id-1780948042-18850000
• Sammlungen: LDP: Historische Bestände der Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig
• Sammlungen: Fotografie
• Bemerkung: Seite I-II fehlen in der Vorlage. Paginierfehler: Seite 160 als Seite 144 gezählt.
• Strukturtyp: Band

• Digitalisat: SLUB Dresden
• Strukturtyp: Ausgabe

October 30, 1885.J THE PHOTOGRAPHIC NEWS. 697 being strongly prejudiced against photography and photo graphers. The views of the ancient monuments are—taking them on the whole—execrable, the efforts of the photographer having been apparently directed toward framing each subject as neatly and symmetrically as possible within the limits of a sheet of paper; but in doing this he is only catering for his Philistine customers, who are mainly tourists from the United States and England. The work of the portrait photographer in Rome is also bad, retouch ing being not only carried to an extreme, but very badly done ; and what makes matters worse is the circumstance that almost every portraitist of note has in his show-case a photograph of a peasant woman of the Campagna in an attitude so awkward, so ungainly, and so uneasy, as to at once suggest the idea of the model being hastily called up into the glass house and posed out of all naturalness. Speaking of Rome, we refer to the deep feeling of dis appointment expressed by almost every one on first enter ing into the city ; that which first strikes the visitor being streets of shops and houses which are a cross between those of Paris and Turin, but with a strong dash of London. When, however, he has wandered in and about the Forum and the Colosseum, and paused several times before the temple of Minerva—a gem set in the midst of a busy street—he realises that he is in the city of the mighty ones of a bygone time. Perhaps it is in the small and dirty streets, which are rarely visited by foreigners, that one feels oneself most closely in contact with the ancients, for here, in the smoke-begrimed drinking shops, he may now and then meet with examples of the typical Roman face and bearing, as he has learned to know them from the chiselled records; but the scenes in the dark shops and work places of the by-ways appear to be utterly and com pletely beyond the power of the camera. Rome, if not one of the best places for the photographer, must for many years to come be the school and delight of the artist. Really well lighted with abundance of electric-arc lamps are many of the large stations in Italy, but more especially does the lighting of the station at Genoa contrast favour ably with that of our most brightly lighted stations in London. During the half hour or so (just past midnight) that the night mail from Milan stops at Genoa, there would in all probability be sufficient time to secure a photograph either of the inside or the outside of the station ; perhaps time for both. Many of the English and Americans who travel by this train are accompanied by the camera, and we would suggest the exposure of a few plates. A large aperture should be used, and time economised by having the appa. ratus ready adjusted as far as possible. It is also possible that a really good photograph of the statue of Christopher Columbus, which stands opposite the station, might be secured, but probably an exposure of over half an hour would be necessary. That now-a-days the number of actual plate makers is small is a circumstance we noticed not long ago. There are manufacturers of plates on a large scale who do not sell to the consumer, but only to those dealers who supply the plates as being of their own manufacture. Not long ago one of these wholesale manufacturers of plates made an excellent series of photographs—a series which became famous in a small way—and no less than four of his customers claimed that the views were made on their plates. In the meantime, the real maker had freely stated that they were on plates of his own make This is the result of putting the same plates in the market under four different names, and not one of them that of the actual maker. On Friday evening, November 13th, the Photographic Exhibition will be specially open for the benefit of the funds of the Photographers’ Benevolent Association. The doors will be open at seven p.m., and an exhibition of lantern transparencies will take place at nine p.m. The price of admission will be sixpence. The Liverpool Astronomical Society fully appreciates the value of photography, and the first meeting of the session was almost entirely occupied by papers on this branch of astronomical observation. The President, Mr. J. Roberts, gave the details of his own and other observers’ photographs of the new star in the nucleus of the nebula in Andromeda, pointing out where they agreed, and where they differed. These differences were not easy to account for; and while it was to be expected that hand-drawings should vary, he thought it disappointing to find photographs differing. The different instruments employed, the sensitiveness of the plates, the time of exposure, and the state of the atmosphere, might account for some of this ; but it was possible that the nebula itself had changed. A paper by Mr. Gage was also read on the same subject, and a discussion followed, showing the interest taken in the subject. The point as to whether the new star is a portion of the nebula or not still, how ever, remains unsettled. At the same meeting an interesting account was given of the photographic charts which are now being taken at the Cape of Good Hope. The whole southern hemisphere will be divided into sixty squares, each one overlapping another adjoining it. Two plates are being taken of each picture, which will make a thousand. The work up to the present has been very successful; it is expected to take three to four years. The Lady's Pictorial has initiated a new departure in fashion plates. Instead of the stereotyped expressionless ladies with the impossible waists, feet, and hands of the fashion artist, the modistes themselves have been photo graphed in the “ novelties of the season,” and their photo graphs—forty-eight in number—presented to the readers of the Ladifs Pictorial in the form of an autumn supple ment. W e took the opinion of an experienced lady on the