Where art begins by Hume Nisbet STANDING , as I do at present, in front of the partly opened gateway to that land of wonders- photographic discovery -I should like to begin my remarks , before looking through the narrow aperture, with a glance backwards, say twenty years, to what the science and art were then, and what they have since become , before we surmise what it- photography - may be twenty years hereafter. I mean to take up photography only where it joins hands with my own work- painting -in the ...
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Where art begins by Hume Nisbet STANDING , as I do at present, in front of the partly opened gateway to that land of wonders- photographic discovery -I should like to begin my remarks , before looking through the narrow aperture, with a glance backwards, say twenty years, to what the science and art were then, and what they have since become , before we surmise what it- photography - may be twenty years hereafter. I mean to take up photography only where it joins hands with my own work- painting -in the broad sense of the word, which, I may safely assert, is taking it nearly all round. When I look back twenty years to the time at which I first began to mix with the professors of the sun-craft- " Brothers of the Light ,‟ to use an occult term - and compare the work of those days with the results of this day, and think upon all it may yet be, it is with a feeling of profound astonishment , not unmixed with admiring envy, that I regard the young scientist beginning a career so filled with possibilities and future discoveries. It seems as if I, the painter, walked upon a highway tramped down by countless travellers, leading to an end definite and unavoidable , while he has before him only a little distance marked out, with a vast country to explore, as his mind and genius may best determine. Many years ago my father took it into his head to begin a photographic business . He did not know much about it himself , although he had a good knowledge of chemistry ; but he was an enthusiast in experiments and a credulous believer in the honesty of mankind. Therefore, through the advice of a friend, he built a glass-house, bought some cameras and chemicals (i t was in the wet-plate days ), laid in a stock of handsomely-designed mounts, &c., and advertised for an operator. I dare say a great number of photographers have gone through a similar experience, thinking, as he did, that this was about the whole which was required to start a future flourishing business, and that the operator, like the cameras , would be equally easy to procure, provided the money was there to pay for them. He bought cameras and hired operators . I think he got through about a dozen of the one, and about half a hundred of the other, before he woke up to the knowledge that something else was required before the business could be built up on a firm basis or the public satisfied with the efforts made to please them. In those days backgrounds and accessories were not greatly considered as the means towards an artistic end. One plain background and one a little complicated were all that the operator considered needful, with a carved chair or fluted pilaster; and thus the multitude were turned out with a set, fixed stare , full front, bolt upright . If male, a lenient photographer might permit one leg to cross the other by way of ease. The female portion generally sat with hands meekly crossed over the lap and a curtain falling gracefully on one side, like the heroic portraits of the times of Sir Benjamin West .
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