✍ Scribed by S. Chary
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
The 1949 American Annualof Photograpahy follows the same general plan that has been used by this periodical for a great many years. There is the usual section of photographs selected from the annual crop of s,).lon prints, somehow not as exciting as some of the pre-war numbers.
It has always been a source of regret to this reviewer that the American Annual uses calendered paper for its reproductions of salon prints. Doubtless, rendering of the fine detail of the original is better acheived with a fine half-tone screen on calendered stock. Nevertheless, it is seldom as aesthetic a presentation of a pictorial subject as the softer and richer tones of a gravure print on a smooth matte surfaced paper, such as was used by some of the foreign annuals before the war, and since, in the case of the British Journal.
Among the articles, one by Yousuf Karsh describes his experiences in photographing famous musicians and singers whose portraits are included in the article, but neglects to give even a hint as to the technical background of how he made them--doubtless a "trade secret".
A technical article by T. Thorne Baker describes some of the characteristics of printing with the color-sensitive double-coated print emulsions such as Varigam, and one by Arthur W. Judge on the Importance of Definition in Stereoscopic Photography" gives rules for obtaining the desired result.
An article by Don D. Nibbilink on Samuel F. B. Morse should settle once and for all the long standing controversy over who took the first photograph in America.
In "Sharpness and Pictorialism," Eleanor Parke Custis writes an excellent plea for the soft-focus picture and defines her point with some of her very beautiful landscapes, outlining her reasons for allowing some details to blend and for permitting others to stand out sharp and clear. Her arguments have validity when considered with the pictures she uses for illustration of her point. Many pictorial workers could benefit by close attention to her thesis.
The article on "Plant Portraits," a subject which seems to delight the editors, since the monthly magazine, as well as the annual, usually includes at least one article on the subject, leaves this reviewer unmoved.
A brief article by Arthur Hammond on "Balancing the Negative," is interesting for its historical outline of the methods used by early workers in achieving balance by inspection but does not offer much help, except by inference, to the modern worker using fast films which must be developed in total darkness.
The lead article with illustrations is a memorial to the late British photographer Alexander Keighly, Hon. F.R.P.S. Planned by the author, J. Dudley Johnston, as a small book to commemorate Keighly's 50 years as a pictorial photographer, it was denied publication during his life-time because of the paper shortage in Britain. Many modern photographers will find the subject matter of his pictures and the technical treatment too much on the sentimental side to be wholly satisfying.
An article on the "Preservation of Daguerreotypes" by the editor, Frank R. Fraprie, and a description of the prints in the salon section, with data on how they were produced, also by the editor, help to bring this annual up to its customary size.
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