| | | Die Kunst in der Photographie
(1901)
Herausgegeben von Franz Goerke
Fünfter Jahrgang: 1901
Halle A. S. Verlag Von Wilhelm Knapp
The fifth year 1901 of this publication featured 36 photogravures issued as six art folios. The photogravures reflected the following themes:
Art Folios #1-4: Reproduces artistic photographic work from Germany, Austria, France, England, Belgium, Holland, Italy, Russia and Switzerland.
Art Folio #5: Reproduces artistic photographic work by Rudolph Eickemeyer Jr. of New York.
Art Folio #6: Reproduces artistic photographic work of the Photographic Society of Philadelphia.
In the article: Die Kunst in der Photographie, the German Camera Work: Part 2: Texts in Abstract-from the publication: History of Photography: Volume II, Number 1, January-March 1987; the author Rolf H. Krauss presents a series of abstracts and summaries of the text articles issued with the run of this publication. The following is a brief summary by Krauss from the text article by Alfred Lichtwark titled "Zur Einführung" appearing over pages #1-4 in the introductory letterpress for the year 1901.
Summary: "Zur Einführung": "...However, the development of amateur photography has progressed rapidly in Germany. There is a fine core of hobby photographers (many ladies among them), and a competent periodical literature. Many individuals, as well as the formal collections of copper engravings at Dresden and Hamburg, have begun to buy photographs. Professional photographers are also beginning to rid themselves of their worst habits, though they can do this only in the largest cities, without endangering their livelihood. "The reform of portrait photography is of the greatest importance for the development of good taste, for photography gets into every house, and rules in the master‘s study as well as the lady‘s boudoir, and even the maid‘s room." Just because photography is so widespread, it can, as the upholder of art and good taste, have a deeper effect on the culture of a nation than any other artistic activity. Yet, it is not the lower classes that are embraced by it, but the upper layers of society. For that reason, this upper class has a special responsibility." (From: Page #8: Texts in Abstract)
The following galleries showcase the 36 large plate photogravures that make up the year 1901. Three of the plates have gone missing from the author‘s archive - I have located one of these (Eickemeyer - "Break, Break, Break, on thy cold gray Stones, O Sea") and included it in this exhibition as a modern reproduction halftone.
Portraiture again makes up a significant amount of the stunning chine-collé photogravure plates: especially fine examples being a study of a Sioux Indian (of the Native-American known as Plenty Wounds) by the American photographer Gertrude Kasebier; a delicate portrait study by the Austrian photographer Carl Siess: "Symmetria"; and a touching well known portrait of the grandmother of American photographer Rudolph Eickemeyer Jr. known as "The Vesper Bell" (earlier reproduced in Camera Notes).
For the first time, beginning in 1901, a selection of elaborately mounted autotype (halftone) plates were also included with this publication. Twenty-two autotypes were included by photographers including among others: Wilhelm Von Gloeden, Guglielmo Plüschow, Gustave Marissiaux, Alfred Stieglitz, and Rudolph Eickemeyer Jr. We intend to mount an exhibition of select examples of these autotypes in a future exhibition.
David Spencer (July 2007)
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