54 DECORATIVE 



pect that eventually the feeling for true simplicity will 

 reach the builders of Pullman cars so that they will set 

 real comfort for the eye before garish display. 



It is undoubtedly to the words and works of Ruskin 

 and of Morris that this modern tendency to settle down 

 into forms of simplicity and true beauty is due. The 

 one taught the principles ; the other, by cunning and 

 strong handiwork, introduced the practice. 



. With these conditions existing, it is 



Ph t°"'''h Perhaps as well that the possibilities of 



Overk)oked photography as a purely decorative 

 agency, apart from relation to pictorial 

 work, have been overlooked. That they have not been 

 largely used is certain ; and it is just as certain that, as 

 the wonderful process of photography comes into play, 

 it will become the most facile and familiar tool of the 

 decorative worker. 



The subject of decorative photography is so broad, 

 and so new, that its adequate treatment is certainly 

 beyond not only my present opportunity but my ability. 

 I can, therefore, but hint, as efficiently as I am able, at 

 the fascinating lines which open before the consideration 

 of photography as a decorative agent, while hoping that 

 there will follow, as the practices of the art may de- 

 velop, a more efficient treatment of it. 



Before taking up the detail of the 



The Field work, it will be best to consider briefly 

 the field. What is the field of decora- 

 tive photography, I ask ? I may properly answer. Every 

 truly decorative surrounding of modern life ! This in-, 

 eludes, inevitably, nearly all the surroundings of that 

 life, for the time is long past when bare utility is the 

 only end and aim. We no longer rest satisfied that the 

 things we deal with are useful and strong, or ingenious 

 and comprehensive, or sanitary and comfortable. They 

 must be beautiful, as well ; and in this insistence we 

 but hark to ages of antiquity and learn again the oft- 

 taught lessons set forth to us by history and by 

 mythology. 



Modern decorative art deals with all materials, used 

 in all places ; and for much of the work of designing, 

 photography may be made useful. Let us glance over a 



