“Automation Taking Art Out Of Photography”

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29772, 15 March 1962, Page 15

“Automation Taking Art Out Of Photography”

Juslt when photographic equipment is nearing perfection in the results it can produce, there is a grave danger that “automation” will take the art out of photography, according to Mr V. C. Browne, who returned to Christchurch this week after 13 weeks overseas, in which he travelled 50.000 miles. For the tourist without much camera experience the automatic camera was ideal. Mr Browne said, because • with its built-in light meter, -ange finder and other selfsetting units) it almost guaranteed that there would be no failures among the pictures. “The owner just has to put the film in.” he said But these cameras often failed to capture “mood.” Their pictures also often lacked individuality. Mr Browne said that he was pleased, therefore, to notice in his travels that simple 35millimetre cameras outnumbered all others by at least 50 to 1 and that young people in particular still preferred to “make their own pictures." Colour prints were now the rage overseas, for those who could afford them, but these had failed to oust the colour •ransparencies. which had great advantages in being adaptable to viewing as they stood. enlarged in hand viewers, screened with a projector, or converted to prints. Mr Browne said it seemed to him that these transparencies also had a marked ascendancy over amateur motion pictures because most persons preferred the simpler and cheaper equipment. “However. I do believe that •here is a fortune waiting for the firm which can find a way of producing cheap colour prints.” said Mr Browne. “These have certainly taken on overseas, with price the only limitation.”

The outstanding photography development he tested overseas was a black and white film with a speed rating of 1600 A S.A., compared with the conventional 100 to 200 Mr Browne showed pictures

he had taken from speeding cars and trains which “froze” every drop in waterfalls and others taken in near darkness at l-10th of a second. Mr and Mrs Browne toured Italy, Switzerland. Germany,

Luxemburg, Belgium. France, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, and Australia, but had their greatest surprise in Japan. On arrival there they were interviewed for television and amazed to be asked about the Browne falls in Doubtful Sound. Mr Browne discovered these on an aerial photography trip before the Second World War. They are 2700 ft high and second only to the 3000 ft Angel falls in Venezuela.