Peter Henry Emerson

Peter Henry Emerson ( born May 13, 1856 in Sagua la Grande, Cuba, † May 12 1936 in Falmouth, England ) was an English photographer and physician of Cuban origin.

Emerson was in his time one of the most important programmatic thinker of photography. In March 1886, he gave the lecture " Photography, a Pictorial Art" ( photography as art ) before the London " Camera Club ", in which he described based on both scientific principles theory of art: the task of the artist is, the effect of nature on mimic the eye. The photograph was this etching, woodcut and superior to the charcoal drawing, as regards the accuracy of the reproduction perspective. Emerson recommended for copying the platinum print or photo etching ( photoengraving ) as well as a simple equipment for photographing: a screen camera, a sturdy tripod and a lens with a relatively long focal length. Hand-held cameras he thought was useless, he also rejected the larger than adulterating from and retouching.

Emerson was probably one of the most controversial and most misunderstood Photo theorists of his time. Many of his theories were controversial, and his artistic blur was so often driven by the other to the extreme, that everything became blurred in the picture like in a fog.

1891 Emerson published a revised version of " Naturalistic Photography" and finally in 1899 a third version, in which he completely recanted his claim that photography is art. However, this revocation had not long since the same effect on the public as his first typeface, and Emerson himself was no longer working according to its principles further, but with the ambition to produce art.