London 



A Portfolio of Twenty Photogravures 



By ALVIN LANGDON COBURN 



» 



With an Introduction by Hilaire Belloc, M.P. 



2^s, net 



This collection of photographs of London has been in 

 preparation by Mr. Coburn for the past five years ; but 

 technically it represents the latest development of his art. 

 His reputation as a master of photographic printing has been 

 gained by single prints in gum and platinotype, each of w^hich 

 cost considerably more to produce than all the prints in this 

 volume. He found it impossible to hand over his negative 

 for reproduction by commercial processes without losing the 

 personal qualities on u^hich the artistic value of his vi^ork 

 depends. Recognizing that in photogravure commerce has 

 produced a method of rivalling mezzotint in the hands of an 

 artist, he set himself to master this process also ; and he has 

 now won the same command of it as of his earHer methods, 

 and can not only produce prints comparable to his finest 

 achievements in gum-platinotype, but reproduces them with 

 certainty at a cost which makes such a publication as the 

 present possible. 



The photogravure plates from which the pictures have been 

 printed have not been made in a factory from Mr. Coburn's 

 negatives, but by his own hands. Every step of the process 

 has been carried out by himself in his studio with the artistic 

 result aimed at constantly in view, thus placing the process on 

 the artistic footing of etching, lithography, and mezzotint. 



Like Whistler, Mr. Coburn has the advantage of looking 

 at London much more imaginatively than any born Londoner 

 could. What he shows us is there, as the camera testifies, 

 but few of us had seen it until Mr. Coburn showed it to us. 



