COLOUR PHOTOGRAPHY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20560, 10 May 1930, Page 11 (Supplement)

COLOUR PHOTOGRAPHY.

ART OR REALISM?

Jn th'o opinion of Ludwig Bcrgcr,

director of the all-colour screen operetta, f f«The Vagabond King," colour photography does not aim at realism, but instead tends to create poetic illusion. ?* Beauty," he says, "is the lifo-blood of any art and tlio gift of colour to the screon gives it a more powerful lever upon tho omo.tions and instincts of the audience than was ever possible with black and white pictures." As an expression of expert opinion this dictum is very interesting and should command a good deal of attention, but tho fact remains that tho average picturegoer has been attracted to the all-colour picturo in tho hopo of seeing persons and filings as they would naturally appear. Ilhis is partly the fault of theatro managers who liayo advertised tho pictures as pioviding "natural colours." Still tho avsrago picture-goer has expected realism in colour photography, and he ha 3 found (that tho galaxy of colours with which he is confronted demands moro from his imagination than tho familiar black and white pictures. Whether tho public is to bo educated

to the coloured picture as a form of art,

or whether tho producers are going to strivo for realism in colour even greater than that of tho older pictures, is a question for tho producers themselves to decide. One of tho chief factors however, will be tho effect on box-ofßco receipts, and it the public still prefers realism to art, its demands will have to bo met Colour photography is as yet barely past its infancy, so an adaptation of this naturo may bo looked forward to with optimism.