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PHOTOGRAPHY 13
felt whenever a painter or poet tries to transfer to his own medium statements advanced in the other. 'There are many things beautiful enough in words/' remarks Benvenuto Cellini, roughly anticipating Lessing, "which do not match . . . well when executed by an artist."52 That the theater is more restrictive than painting is strikingly demonstrated by an experience of Eisenstein. At a time when he still directed theatrical plays he found out by trial and error that stage conditions could not be stretched infinitely —that in effect their inexorable nature prevented him from implementing his artistic intentions, which then called for film as the only fitting means of expression. So he left the theater for the cinema.53 Nor does, at least in our era, the novel readily lend itself to all kinds of uses; hence the recurrent quest for its essential features. Ortega y Gasset compares it to a 'Vast but finite quarry."54
But if any medium has its legitimate place at the pole opposite that of painting, it is photography. The properties of photography, as defined by Gay-Lussac and Arago at the outset, are fairly specific; and they have lost nothing of their impact in the course of history. Thus, it seems all the more justifiable to apply the basic aesthetic principle to this particular medium. (Since hybrid genres drawing on photography are practically nonexistent, the problem of their possible aesthetic validity does not pose itself.)
Compliance with the basic aesthetic principle carries implications for ( 1 ) the photographer's approach to his medium, ( 2 ) the affinities of photography, and (3) the peculiar appeals of photographs.
The photographic approach
The photographer's approach may be called "photographic" if it conforms to the basic aesthetic principle. In an aesthetic interest, that is, he must follow the realistic tendency under all circumstances. This is of course a minimum requirement. Yet in meeting it, he will at least have produced prints in keeping with the photographic approach. Which means that an impersonal, completely artless camera record is aesthetically irreproachable, whereas an otherwise beautiful and perhaps significant composition may lack photographic quality. Artless compliance with the basic principle has its rewards, especially in case of pictures adjusting our vision to our actual situation. Pictures of this kind need not result from deliberate efforts on the part of the photographer to give the impression of artistic creations. In fact, Beaumont Newhall refers to the intrinsic "beauty" of aerial serial photographs taken with automatic cameras during the last war for strictly military purposes.55 It is understood that this particular brand of beauty