American cinematographer (Jan-Dec 1926)

Ten AMERICAN CINEMA TOGRAPHER Nineteen Motion and the Art of Cinematography Startling and Novel Ideas By Slavko Vorkapich on Motion Picture Treat (Slavko Vorkapich, celebrated Hollywood artist, delivered the following address before a recent open meeting of the American Society of Cinematographers :) As foreword, I must tell you, that in this address the subject of Motion Pictures will be treated from a purely artistic point of view. Therefore, the more practical side of it, the commercial value and the understanding by the public in general will be completely overlooked. I will ask you, if I may, to forget, for a while at least, the business side of films, the box office and the appeal to the audiences, although we feel that, even among the public, there is an evident demand for "something different." And, who knows, perhaps the ideas here expressed, if properly realized, might some day prove even financially valuable. However, a real artist works to satisfy his own taste first. And, if his work is sincere, the discriminating ones among the public will deeply enjoy the product of his effort. Now to come to our problem : Can a motion picture be a real work of art? By "work of art" I mean — an achievement comparable to masterpieces of all other arts; a motion picture that could compare, in its artistic value, to an Egyptian temple, to a Greek statue of Venus or Apollo, to Dante's Inferno, to Shakespeare's Hamlet, to the poems of Byron, to Mona Lisa, to Michael Angelo's frescoes, to Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, and so forth. Can we name one motion picture that has approached those masterpieces? "Is it possible to make such a masterpiece in motion pictures, and how?" is the problem I should like to discuss with you tonight. To know an art, we must know its tools, its material, its proper characteristics, its field of activity and its limitations. For that reason, we have to examine the possibilities of our new medium, the cinema. From Photography Cinematography has evolved fro mphotography. That is, maybe, why many have made the mistake to think of cinema in terms of photography. But still a greater mistake is. to judge the cinema from the point of view of drama or literature. Why is it, that the people won't grant an absolute independence to this recent human achievement? This has been ment Advanced by Student puzzling me, and I was unable to find an answer. Or, is the cause to be found in the wellknown difficulty of the humans to adapt themselves to anything new? Work of Art? In order to clear the path to our investigation, I am going to make a radical statement: A photograph can never be a real work of art. A photograph can be pretty, pleasing, decorative, even beautiful to a certain extent, but never really artistic. If you don't agree with me, make the following experiment: Take the best photograph you can find and try to look at it for a long time, let us say, for half an hour. In the beginning you will be pleased with its appearance; but, the longer you look at it, the emptier it will appear to you. Exhausted You will realize that the first impression was only superficial. You will discover its lack of substance and of feeling. At the end of a few minutes, its contents, artistically speaking, will be completely exhausted. Studying Old Masters Now take a good painting by an old master, even a black and white reproduction of it, and look at it as long as you please. The experience will be the opposite to the previous one. The longer you look at it, the more interest you will discover in it. In fact, a real masterpiece will begin to live and reveal its worth only after a certain time of observation. (This is the best way to test the value of any work or art). This is also true of good literature and good music. The oftener you re-read certain passages from Shakespeare or Goethe, the more you discover in them. Real art is like life and nature: inexhaustible in its contents. Different This experiment has convinced me that it is useless for photography to try to compete with art. But cinematography, if properly understood, can become an art. We shall see, presently, why and how. Most of you, here, being cameramen — (I don't like that name — cameraman. Another name should be used by those in pictures: like cinematographer, camera-artist, cinegraphist, or something like that) — being camera artists,