THL WOMBAT. 



PHOTOGRAPHIC MATTER. 



By Tom Quill. 



The Photographic Society connected with the Gordon 

 College has concluded a most successful year. The object 

 of this section, although frequently regarded by the general 

 public chiefly as an amusement of a somewhat high degree, 

 is really an art requiring the most careful mechanical 

 precision combined with artistic insight of no mean order. It 

 is only with these powers working together towards one object 

 that the great end of this wonderful science is reached, viz : — 

 the production of a picture in its true sense. Apart from the 

 objeot for which the picture is produced, whether for the mere 

 gratification of looking at a pleasant scene, or for the higher 

 aim of teaching some fact by the easiest and at the same time 

 most pleasing of all methods of learning — by means of the 

 visual organs — it necessitates for its students a knowledge 

 even if only a slight one of the wonderful powers he uses in 

 producing his pictures. I think no person can study photo- 

 graphy for any length of time without gaining some knowledge 

 of chemical action and the laws of light, from which would 

 naturally grow a desire to peer deeper into the mysteries of 

 nature's laws. 



The advance of photography into everyday life, and its 

 close connection with book illustration and newspaper work, 

 architecture reproduction of plans, drafting and machinery, 

 etc., all serve to show its value as a handmaiden to the arts 

 and success. The G. C. A. P. A. itself has indeed proved 

 its usefulness by bringing to a successful issue one of the 

 largest exhibitions of photographic art ever held in Austra- 

 lasia, while the Congress held in conjunction with it was 

 actually the first. 



The papers and lectures given by gentlemen holding a high 

 position in the world of science and art cannot fail to produce 

 a more thoughtful and earnest endeavour to attain even a 

 higher standard of excellence than already shown. The 

 remarks of the judges appearing above their signatures cannot 



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