The cinema as a graphic art : on a theory of representation in the cinema (1959)

CREATIVE PROBLEMS OF THE ART OF THE CAMERA-MAN Fig. 77. — Viewpoint selected for camera in primitive ' theatricalised ' studio. nly the one way of perfection along the line of formal methods of shooting ortraits and landscapes, and trick filming. None the less, even within these narrow limits the cinematograph could not 'ise to the level of the craftsmanship which had characterised the brilliant period f Daguerre in photography. To a large extent master of the construction of tatic photography, the camera-man became hopelessly impotent as soon as he ame up against the necessity of constructing a dynamic shot. The arrival of the close-up brought a decisive break in the development of amera-man's methods. By stimulating the creation of modern editing, the lose-up had a considerable influence also upon the methods of artistic organisaion of the shot. But one of the immediate results of its application was the ransfer to cinematography of the worst traditions of portrait photography. The art ' portrait, so memorable in all its varieties of ' salon ' post-cards, became the )bject of the average camera-man's enthusiasm. Over a number of years closelps of all kinds of beautiful heads dominated the screen. The camera-man's irt received its artistic heritage by no means from the hands of the true pioneers )f art photography, but through the innumerable intervening instances of the llustrated gutter press of the late nineteenth century. Thus, during the early period of the development of the camera-man's art, vhich for convenience we call the * reproduction ' period, representational culture leveloped mainly on the basis of two dominating influences. On the one hand here was the influence of the theatre, which restricted the camera-man's creative I51