Art Books

Art Principles In Portrait Photography | by Otto Walter Beck: Art in photography is possible only in an extension of the methods known and in the employment of new processes to effect a manipulation of the photo-image. When the tool is made so pliable that it records more than the surface appearance of things, when the personal element enters to give life to the accurate records, the present limitations of impersonal representation are removed from photography, and its large true sphere of influence opens. Not the subject merely, but the quality attained in the treatment of the subject, will become our chief source of delight. Several methods are used at the present time to modify the lens record. In some instances the printing paper is worked upon in such a manner as to leave undeveloped the less desirable definitions of form contained in the negative. A certain resemblance to creative work results, and much beauty has often been attained, but "picture unity" and "picture expression" have rarely been reached. Certain other factors are required to produce them. If creative work is to enter into photography, it must be possible to make on the negative a line of any character and to control the light and shade with the facility of one who paints...

The Sinclair Handbook Of Photography | by James A. Sinclair: The aim of this book is to answer as clearly as possible many of the enquiries that are addressed to us from day to day in the course of our business. The majority of people to whom the fascination of the photographic process appeals on one ground or another, do not want to examine too minutely its scientific side...