Photography is one of the modern inventions which
help to annihilate the effect of lime and space. If the art of photography had
been discovered in the days of Elizabeth, we should know exactly how the
Spanish Armada looked as it sailed up the English Channel in 1588, and should
no longer be noble to decide which of the many different portraits of Mary
Queen of Scots gives the most accurate representation of the features of her
too beautiful face. The art of photography, if it had been known at an earlier
date, would have illustrated all the events of past history to us. As it will
illustrate the history of the nineteenth century to our remote posterity.
The triumphs that photography has achieved over
space are equally conspicuous. By its assistance we are able to look at exact
representations of persons and things thousands of miles away. The pains of
exile are alleviated now that the emigrant can take with him photographs of
those near and dear to him, whom he has left behind, and of the scenes most
familiar to him in his childhood. The traveler brings home with him
photographs of the strange people and places that he visits on his travels. By
the perusal of photographic albums, it is possible for us to obtain a very
accurate knowledge of the external appearance of foreign countries without
leaving our home.
It is by the help of photography that the illustrated
papers bring before our eyes the scenes that are being enacted all over the
world. Wherever any events of general interest ‘takes place it is sure to be
photographed by some enterprising artist, and the picture being sent to London
and reproduced by the engraver’s art son the pages of an illustrated paper, is
distributed all over England and dispatched by post to the most distant
countries. Thus, in Pakistan, when we open the pages of the Graphic or the
Illustrated London News, we can see without stirring from our arm chair the
floods at Eton and Windsor, the scene of an Alpine accident in Switzerland, the
Pope blessing French pilgrims at Rome, and the dead soldiers, as they appeared
on a Chilean battlefield, arranged in rows ready for burial.
But, it may be said, all this might be effected by
drawing and painting without the aid of photography. So it could, if the world
were full of artists who could sketch rapidly everything of interest that
presented itself to their eyes. But the power of sketching is a rare
accomplishment, whereas photography only requires a certain amount of manual
dexterity. Also, although a painting or other sketch is a far higher work of
art than a photograph, it is a less accurate representation of reality, in as
much as the painter is sure to introduce into his picture some modification due
to the influence of his own individuality. Thus it is that the paintings of
Mary Queen of Scots differ so much from each other, and we cannot he sure that
any ancient picture gives us a faithful idea of the scene depicted.
Also photography can do work that can in no way be
done by the pencil and brush of the most skillful artist. It can enlarge
microscopic objects and reduce its pictures to microscopic proportions. At the
time of the siege of Paris. Those who wished to send messages to their besieged
friends had them pointed on the first page of the Times. This page was
photographed on such a minute scale that the photograph could be conveyed under
the wings of a pigeon into Paris. When this photography had been thus conveyed
across the besieging lines, it was enlarge by the microscope to legible
proportions, and gave the besieged Parisians messages from their friends
outside which could scarcely have been obtained by any other means.
The photography of minute microscopic organisms
has been an immense gain to science, as it gives the scientific man permanent
pictures of objects invisible to the naked eye. The photographer enlarging the
map of the heavens by registering the positions of stars that cannot be seen
through the most powerful telescope. The astronomer takes his camera with him
when he goes to a distant pan of the world to take observations, and the
photographs so obtained have given interesting information about the suns
corona and other phenomena of the heavens. Thus in many ways photography
besides being a pleasant amusement and an alleviation of the pains of separation,
is of great use to scientific observers.