Essay On Photography As A Hobby As Art

Essay On Photography As A Hobby As Art

Photography is one of the modern inventions which help to annihilate the effect of time and space. If the art of photography had been discovered in the days of Elizabeth, we should know exactly how the Spanish Armada looked as it sailed up the English Channel in 1588, and should no longer be noble to decide which of the many different portraits of Mary Queen of Scots gives the most accurate representation of the features of her too beautiful face. The art of photography, if it had been known at an earlier date, would have
illustrated all the events of past history to us. as it will illustrate the history of the nineteenth century to our remote posterity.

The triumphs that photography has achieved over space are equally conspicuous. By its assistance we are able to look at exact representations of persons and things thousands of miles away. The pains of exile are alleviated now that the emigrant can take with him photographs of those near and dear to him, whom he has left behind, and of the scenes most familiar to him in his childhood. The traveller brings home with him photographs of the strange people and places that he visits on his travels .

By the perusal of photographic albums, it is possible for us to obtain a very accurate knowledge of the external appearance of foreign countries without leaving our home. It is by the help of photography that the illustrated papers bring before our eyes the scenes that are being enacted all over the world. Wherever any events of general interest takes place it is sure to be photographed by some enterprising artist, and the picture being sent to London and reproduced by the engraver's art on the pages of an illustrated paper, is distributed all over England and dispatched by post to the most distant countries.

Thus, in Pakistan. when we open the pages of the Graphic or the Illustrated London News, we can see without stirring from our arm chair the floods at Eton and Windsor, the scene of an Alpine accident in Switzerland, the Pope blessing French pilgrims at Rome, and the dead soldiers, as they appeared on a Chilian battlefield, arranged in rows ready for burial.

But, it may be said, all this might be effected by drawing and painting without the aid of photography. So it could, if the world were full of artists who could sketch rapidly everything of interest that presented itself to their eyes. But the power of sketching is a rare accomplishment, whereas photography only requires a certain amount of manual dexterity. Also, although a painting or other sketch is a far higher work of art than a photograph, it is a less accurate representation of reality, in as much as the painter is sure to introduce into his picture some modification due to the influence of his own individuality. Thus it is that the paintings of Mary Queen of Scots differ so much from each other, and we cannot be sure that any ancient picture gives us a faithful idea of the scene depicted.

Also photography can do work that can in no way be done by the pencil and brush of the most skilful artist. It can enlarge microscopic objects and reduce its pictures to microscopic proportions. At the time of the siege of Paris. those who wished to send messages to their besieged friends, had them pointed on the first page of the Times. This page was photographed on such a minute scale that the photograph could be conveyed under the wings of a pigeon into Paris. When this photography had been thus conveyed across the besieging lines, it was enlarge by the microscope to legible proportions, and gave the besieged Parisians messages from their friends outside which could scarcely have been obtained by any other means.


The photography of minute microscopic organisms has been an immense gain to science, as it gives the scientific man permanent pictures of objects invisible to the naked eye. The photographer is enlarging the map of the heavens by registering the positions of stars that cannot be seen through the most powerful telescope. The astronomer takes his camera with him when he goes to a distant part of the world to take observations, and the photographs so obtained have given interesting information about the sun's corona and other phenomena of the heavens. Thus in many ways photography, besides being a pleasant amusement and an alleviation of the pains of separation, is of great use to scientific observers.