Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1916-06-01
GARDINER PHOTO
ARTIST LAUDED
BY FAMOUS CLUB

The following item is from the Chi
cago Sunday Herald Of May q, and
will be Of interest to residents Of this
city inasmuch as Mr.. Bertrand H.
Wentworth, concerning whose work
the sketch deals, is not only a resident
of Gardiner but native as we'll.
Photography as a Fine Art Comes
Into Its Own.
When landscape artists, welded to
their colors, praise landscape photo
graphs it is obvious that the camera
productions in question are worth
looking at. Local artists are practical
ly agreed that the impressionistic pho
tographs by Bertrand H. Wentworth
now on view at the Palate and CHS
g! Club are art
the last group in America to acknowl-
edge that photographs could achieve
artistic perturbation, for Chicago
painters are primarially landscape
men. They typify the middle western
spirit Of painting, which is tinged very
heavily with the pastoral life of sub
ject matter. Furthermore it is only
natural and human for the painters to
look upon landscape photography with
out enthusiasm.
so it is compliment to Wentworth
that profession favor has met his cur
rent exhibition. The favor. too. of am
ateur photographers is given him, and
-, 90 l.
ing most strongly to souls that feel
the need of some occupation and ex-
preston during vaca ton months that
are coming.
considering his contention that not
one of the remarkable photographs
has been retouched or faxed in the
slightest degree, his lighting effects
are astounding. The marines, with
cliffs hating the incoming waves, are
poetical in their lights and shades and
full of action in the suspended break
ers and poised lines Of foam.
"Wentworth knows what makes a
picture He is content to take part OF
an impressive scene and select those
essentials for reproduction that will
awaken the observers sense of beauty.
For instance, he does not attempt to
crowd all of a group Of birch trees into
a picture.
He takes only a few feet of their
eStremities and fills in the fore ground
of the picture with the snow that lies
about their roots or the leaves that
drift there. He has a keen sense Of
selection.
He knows that distant sail shown
in one corner of a picture OF cllns ana
breakers will give the picture needed
perspective and lift it from mechanical
photography to art.
"Wentworth has waited for these pic
lures. bidin2 his time until the hight
was right, until the action he wanted
vas enlivening the scenes. And yet
none of them are stunts; all are
natural and realistic. He has hunted
until nature presented the scene ne
wanted and then chosen OF 1t those
parts that were harmonious.
SO delicately are some of his wood
land scenes blended AS to light and
contrasted as to shadow that they seem
to be photographs Of paintings
"Mooreland Mists" is a masterpiece In
re-crcating the pleasant melancholy
that people feel when looking upon
wells Of gray rain settling on desoiate
moors. He recalls, also. to observers,
that feeling that giant cliffs half hid
den in fog are sometimes possessed OF
impending manifestations OF force.
NO human figure appears in any OF
the 70 odd pictures he has sent from
his home in Gardiner. Maine. The hui
man element is visible in . many OF
them, however. particularly in his snow
scenes. where the foreground is brok-
en- by footprints trailing across the 9TH
erwise unbroken surface. This ADDS
contrast and a line Of shadow to the
picture that is plainly necessary to us
artistic success. Such little details OF
technique as this. the sort OF Things
artists appreciate. are potent FACTORS
in Wentworth's success. and are valu-
able bits of instruction to the amateur
photographer who is preparing 10
plunge into this manner Of recreation
this summer.
1T is upon this matter Of composition
that the amateur photographer can
learn much from Wentworth's pictures
Wentworth's misty seas and soft smud-
sy tree tops are not new. This thing
of throwing the camera lens out Of TO-
Gus a trifle and making a picture that
will be engagingly blurred. SO that the
details which give a picture reality
are gone and only the imaginative
qualities, has been done before. per-
hape never more skilfully than IN
Wentworth's display. and still is done
by countless professionals and anna
tours"