LANGUAGE OF PHOTOGRAPHY IS EXPLAINED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22657, 7 June 1948, Page 6

LANGUAGE OF PHOTOGRAPHY IS EXPLAINED

The fortnightly meeting of the Gisborne Camera Club was held in Mr. Keith Wade’s studio on Thursday night A syllabus of lectures, demonstrations and competitions for trie next, four months was drawn up and it is expee'ed these will attract considerable Mr. Alan L. Gordon, A.R.P.S., de interest from members.

livered a very interesting lecture en tilled ’‘Photography as a language”. He explained how in the early years of our lives we began to talk by lerning from older folk, and by listening to nem talk, in this way we learned a language. Likewise, photography is a language, different from any spoken one, but still a language—it is a means of expression.

The speaker pointed out that begin ners in the art of photography were not masters of that language, but could learn it, thereby deriving great pleasure from such a hobby. Its popularity throughout the world could be judged from the millions of films sold annually. Everyone admired the hundreds of excellent pictures to be seen in today’s magazines and periodicals, and manv desired to make similar pictures long before they had mastered the simple fundamentals to the making of good pictures. Some give up. thinking that if they could afford more expensive equipment they could do better. However, many an advanced worker had made his finest prints when using a low-priced box or folding camera, while beginners had endeavoured to use a very fine camera, only to find themselves lost in the maze of its technicalities, and therefore unable to give the necessary thought to the actual making of the picture from the subject. Amateurs Should be Versatile

Mr. Gordon also pointed out that amateurs would learn more if they endeavoured to be versatile rather than specialise too much. Light was a most important factor in photography. This could be easily illustrated by comparing the same subject, on say a cloudy and sunny day, and it was good practice to study the different effects which lighting gave to the surroundings in which we moved. There are many ways of obtaining pleasure from photography. Some build gadgets and apparatus, some become experimenters and try out many formulae. But the picture is the fruit of the hobby, and unless we make this so. interest soon wanes.

He concluded with some encouraging remarks for beginners. An appreciative audience accorded him a vote of thanks for his excellent lecture.

At the next meeting three members will demonstrate the developing of plates and films, both ordinary and miniature.