HF The History of Photography 600pág

23 Landscape and architectural photography
The popularity of the collodion process should not convey the impression that it had
made photography easier. On the contrary, it had become more difficult, but the
advantages of extremely delicate detail, improved half-tones and, in particular,
increased sensitivity, compensated for the difficulty of manipulation.
The work of the professional portrait photographer was considerably eased by
having at his command a much faster sensitive material, but the heavy additional
burden the landscape photographer had to take about in equipment almost out- Fig 40
weighed the advantages of the process. Most photographers still worked with folding
wooden box-type cameras. The much lighter bellows camera, which would have
seemed the ideal tourist camera, established itself only very gradually. Presumably
the big bellows extension proved insufficiently rigid for the relatively long exposures
( 15-50 seconds) demanded by the large plate sizes which landscape and architectural
photographers worked with : for, paradoxical as it may seem, the camera during the
collodion period became both larger and smaller, according to the purpose for which
it was intended. For stereoscopic and other fast exposure effects small cameras were
of course essential, but for exhibition purposes, and for prints for sale, large pictures
were in demand. With the realization of the possibilities of photography as an art
medium-a development not considered to any great extent while photography was
mainly in the hands of professionals whose object was to make a living out of
portraiture-the lively competition stimulated by photographic exhibitions made
pictures of imposing dimensions a sine qua non. As enlarging was not yet practicable,
large pictures meant large plates from which to make contact copies : IO in. x 12 in.
and 12 in. x 16 in. were nothing out of the ordinary, and some handled plates of
much larger dimensions. When a photographer asked the editor of The Photographic
News for his advice as to the best size for a travelling camera, he replied, 'It should
be capable of taking pictures 21 in. x 27 in. '1 Some of FRANCIS FRITH ' s Egyptian and
Palestinian views were taken on 16 in. x 20 in. plates, and E. BALDUS, the leading Pl 150
French architectural photographer, often employed negative material of similar size
(40 cm. x 50 cm.). ROBERT MACPHERSON ' s Roman views go up to 16 in. x 20 in. and
so do many of ROGER FENTON ' s landscapes and architectural studies of English
cathedrals. At the Paris Universal Exhibition 1855 Baldus showed a landscape 1 m.
30 cm. (51 in.) wide, Bisson Freres a photograph of the Pavillon de l'Horloge of the
Louvre rn2 cm. x 77 cm. (40 in. x 3oi- in.) and Thompson & Bingham portraits taken
on glass plates 80 cm. high (Ft in.). Some views of the Yosemite Valley by CARLE-
TON E. WATKINS and C. L. Weed in the mid-186os measure as much as 22 in. x 28 in.,
and WILLIAM HENRY JACKSON took a 20 in. x 24 in. camera to the Rocky Mountains
in 1875.