MOTION PHOTOGRAPHY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21758, 24 March 1934, Page 7 (Supplement)

MOTION PHOTOGRAPHY

CLAIMS TO RANK AS ART Mr. Olaf F. Bloch, head of the research department of llford, Limited, who lectured before the Royal Photographic Society, contended that motion photography could be ranked among the arts. To what extent the artist might be, in part, superseded by the artist using the camera as a means of expression, he said, it was difficult to say, but the process had already begun. Tho artist's picture was a crystallisation. It might be a still picture; it might immortalise some great moment in a man's life, or some aspect of nature as seen by tho artist. But it was one moment oniy, and however desirable it might be to immortalise that moment they were aware, consciously or sub-consciously, that it was preceded by something leading up to it and followed bv something issuing from it. The modern awareness of movement went deep down into the most primal things, for science had revealed incessant motion as part of the basis of the constitution of matter itself. In the ordinary photograph one could only crystallise a moment, but now they were able to crystallise time itself. The moment before was with them as well as the moment after, and the attainment of beauty in form, in action, in texture, was a matter of technique. Since they worked with a rapid succession of static photographs they could also view any one as a still photograph. They missed the charm of the artist's touch, tho beautiful line of the sketch or etching, the wonder of the_ brushwork, the juicy texture of pigment, and the magic by means of which the picture was built up; but they gained movement, and movement was life. Colour was a most important factor in the situation, said the lecturer, and, other things being equal, there could as a rule be no hesitation of choice between the picture and the photograph. But dynamic colour photography was in the offing, and when successfully accomplished it would _ give tli9 additional possibilities in colour schemes, colour depth and colour arrangement, which were so important in securing complete, final beauty. Dynamic photography could make literature live; it could to some extent replace the laboratory in education; it could improve upon nature by revealing the secrets of her methods; it could satisfy artistic needs; it could act as an instrument of social and economic progress; it could bring the nations closer together and it could reveal events which occurred simultaneously in places remote from one another. What could be done with it, however, and what was done with it at present were two very different things. STUDY OF RARE BEETLES Beetles with their anatomy organised for breathing air, yet which live under water and get air to breathe only once in their lives, have been found in the United States in the cold, swift brooklets in the Great Smoky Mountains, between Tennessee and North Carolina. They belong to a rare and very littleknown group of insects, of which GO species have been discovered so far in North America, report entomologists of the Smithsonian Institution. The beetles hatch under water, and live their larval lives submerged. After they pass through the pupal stage they come out for a little flight into the upper air, which ensures their distribution. Then they get under water again,' and never come to the surface any more. In spite of their almost totally submerged lives, these beetles are not organised, as some insects are. for water breathing. They have no gills or similar apparatus, and although there is a small reservoir of air under their wing-cases, it appears doubtful whether this pocketful would suffice for normal breathing requirements for their months of life. The only suggestion that has been made is that they are naturally so inactive that their oxygen requirement is very low. FOOD AND RADIO WAVES By subjecting food substances to radio waves of the proper length, two British scientists have found it possible to cause vitamins to increase rapidly. The result is food of concentrated vitamin content. The scientists say they have discovered the wave-lengths of vitamins A, B and D, and are experimenting with C. Ultra-short rays of the same wave-length build up a particular vitamin in substances under treatment. The work is similar to treatment of milk with ultra-violet rays to enrich its food value.