The photographic news

• Bandzählung: 7.1863
• Erscheinungsdatum: 1863
• 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-id1780948042-186300004
• PURL: http://digital.slub-dresden.de/id1780948042-18630000
• OAI: oai:de:slub-dresden:db:id-1780948042-18630000
• Sammlungen: LDP: Historische Bestände der Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig
• Sammlungen: Fotografie
• Strukturtyp: Band

• Digitalisat: SLUB Dresden
• Strukturtyp: Ausgabe

March 6, 1863.] THE PHOTOGRAPHIC NEWS. 113 Mr. H. P. Robinson, to which a verse of Spenser is appended. It is a large photograph, with women' and children dressed up in country clothes; but the May, intended to be as beautiful as the real flower, is a ridiculous-looking stuff, more like sponge than hawthorn-blossom.” Any of our readers who have seen this elaborate composition, which occupied the thoughts of the artist for many months, will see the absurdity of the paragraph we have extracted. The latter part of it is particularly funny. We have good reason for knowing that the “ May ” photographed in the picture was not an artificial “ property,” as the writer evidently thought, but some of the finest in Warwickshire (a county celebrated for its hawthorn), gathered in an unusually good season. But, after all, we must not expect too much from a writer of this kind—one who probably has not time to think, but allows his brain to become, like his own idea of a camera, a mere machine, and runs off his “ copy ” mechani cally, to fill a certain amount of space. But it is different with a writer who professes to have an intimate knowledge of photography, and who has written on the subject for many years. In our last number we printed a paper read before the Photographic Society of Scotland (a Society distinguished for its appreciation of art-photography), by Mr. Sutton, in which he deliberately states, “ The first chalk drawings of a schoolboy upon a wall are, in my opinion, more admirable, from the human interest which they possess, than the finest view of inanimate natural objects upon the ground glass of a camera obscura.” This, we take it, is rank heresy. We are not writing with the object of confuting Mr. Sutton’s strange expression of his taste. We think we should only be insulting the intel ligence of our readers, did we point out and attempt to prove logically that a fine view, as seen in a camera is much more beautiful than a schoolboy’s caricatures. Our object is to express our deep regret that the higher branches of our charming art should be so misunderstood and abused by a gentleman who has earned the respect and esteem of all photographers by his many valuable inventions for facili tating the practice of the art-science. Mr. Sutton confesses that his opinions often change; let us hope that they will experience yet one more variation in favour of the art he now writes so vigorously against, and that they will then remain permanent.—Photographic Journal. • THE APPLICATION OF PHOTOGRAPHY TO THE MAGIC LANTERN EDUCATIONALLY CON SIDERED. BY SAMUEL HIGHLEY, F.G.3., AC* Discussion. Mr. Charles Jones, as an old member of the Society, ex pressed the deep interest he felt in the subject which had been so ably brought before them this evening, and the pleasure with which he had listened to Mr. Highley’s paper; and he congratulated the meeting upon the very practical m anner in which that gentleman had treated the subject. Since the year 1859, ho (Mr. Jones) had devoted a great deal of atten tion to photography in connection with the lantern, and the members would probably recollect that on two occasions, at the Society’s conversazioni, he had exhibited a series of photo graphic transparencies in the lantern, showing its capabilities as an educational instrument. Amongst other subjects of a popular character, ho had recently photographed the engrav ings given in the Illustrated London News, representing various incidents connected with the distress in Lancashire, and he should fool obliged to Mr. Highley if he would bo kind enough to include a few of those photographs in the illustrations with which ho was about to favour the meeting. Mr. Highley said he should be most happy to do so. The Chairman then suggested that he thought it would be more convenient that the illustrations should now be shown, * Concluded from page 105. and any further discussion upon the paper would take place afterwards. Mr. Highley then exhibited, on a large screen, an extensive series of lantern views of scientific subjects, illustrative of the application of photography to the representation of geological, botanical, zoological, microscopical, astronomical, geographical, ethnological, biographical, and pathological subjects ; and after wards examples of the representations of the artistic works of Kaulbach, Schnorr, and Hogarth; together with groups of sculpture, as well as some specimens furnished by Mr. Charles Jones. The Chairman said it was now his duty to recall the atten tion of the meeting to the subject which had been so ably brought forward in the paper, and to invite discussion upon it. After the illustrations they had just seen, he thought they would be better able to appreciate the paper which Mr. Highley had read. Mr. Pearsall thought the medical profession and society at large would be greatly benefited by the application of photo graphy to the illustration of the various stages of the diseases of the human frame. He had frequently been called upon to make sketches of the progress of disease, but it was impossible for an artist to follow the rapid changes which sometimes took place in cases of a complicated character. In this respect, therefore, photography was of the greatest value. Its import ance to the palaeontologist was also manifested in the illustra tions given of the restorations of extinct animals. With re gard to the illustrations of the distress in Lancashire, he thought it was a remarkable proof of the perfection to which the art of wood engraving had been brought, that the subjects exhibited this evening bear the severe test of the high magnify ing power to which they had been subjected in the lantern. Mr. W. Hawes thought so interesting a paper as this ought not to pass over without a few more observations than had already been made upon it; for he thought very few would have had an idea of the importance of this subject in an educa tional point of view, had they not seen the illustrations which had been shown, and undoubtedly they would not have been in a position to discuss the merits of the paper, or to appreciate the views enunciated in it, without first seeing the illustrations by which it had been accompanied. When they considered that photography itself, as an art, was scarcely a dozen years old—that it was only just previous to the Exhibition of 1851 that it was first practically applied—it was a striking illustration of the marvellous rapidity with which knowledge of all kinds was made available, and how soon it became popular and was turned to really useful account. It was only by the untiring ndustry of comparatively few persons, who had devoted them selves to the study and development of this new art, that it could have been brought to such pefection as to allow of the production of such beautiful specimens as had been exhibited this evening. He thought their educational value could hardly be over estimated, and that those present were much indebted to Mr. Highley, not only for the paper itself, but for the illus trations of this beautiful art with which he had favoured them, and which showed the vast amount of benefit which would bo derived from photography applied to educational purposes. Ho could not conceive anything more valuable to the lecturer and teacherthan this power of reproducing the marvellous creations of Nature, and exhibiting them in the way they had seen this evening. He therefore hoped that they would unanimously thank Mr. Highley for bringing this subject before them. The Chairman said, before they adjourned, he might be permitted in the name of the meeting, to thank Mr. Highley for the interesting paper he had read, as well as for the illus trations of it he had given. As an educationist, a line which he (the chairman) had himself taken, he could not thank him too highly for the manner in which ho had brought the subject before them, connecting it, as he had done, immediately with education. The microscopic illustrations exhibited had shown, in a remarkable manner, how the valuable sources of informa tion opened up to us by that instrument might M popularized, and rendered available for general instruction. As an educa tionist, he (the Chairman), would again thank Mr. Highley most heartily, for ho thought they had arrived, happily, at the day when they did not regard education as a mere matter of form. The eye must be entertained, and they might in many ways contribute to education and enlarge the powers and faculties of the mind without treading merely those old and narrow paths to which education has been hitherto confined. The rule of thumb was no longer admissible as a simple means