Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice book in great condition. Pages in excellent condition. Images are beautiful bright and vivid. No notes or highlighting. See images. Fantastic book.

About the book >.>.> Initially hailed with enthusiasm photogra- phy like all inventions has since stirred up a storm of criticism. Undoubtedly with the best intentions certain minds see this admirable discovery as posing a danger for art; they were afraid lest the human hand might forget its skill knowing that a machine exists that can do its work. As we will presently show this fear is without foundation. Besides photogra- phy is not-as has too readily been believed- a simply chemical operation. All that man touches receives his imprint; the soul tran- spires in every ray: in an exhibition comprised of heliographic prints from various countries each nationality can be recognized easily.”? Published in 1857 Th?ophile Gautier’s article began by imagining the astonishment a man born in 1800 would have felt if “marooned at the age of fifteen on some Pacific island and then brought back by chance aboard ship into the midst of our civilization.” How absolutely amazed this Robinson would be Gautier sug- gests to have witnessed the inventions that had come into being since his shipwreck: the steam engine the telegraph and particularly photog- raphy which made it possible “to purloin and fix images produced by the sun.. (MP)