Title of plate from known source.
Stilleben printed on plate.
Translated title: Tea Still-life, Version III

Original copy for this entry posted to Facebook on February 26, 2012:

Austrian photographer Heinrich Kühn (1866-1944) was a radical for his time: he simply yet diligently recorded the effects of light using his camera-tweaking the results in post-production so to speak using numerous artistic photographic processes of his day-principally gum-bichromate. By using the human form as the object for his canvas or in this example, a simple tea service bathed in light, he succeeded in creating timeless results most worthy of our continued study. Claude Monet and other Impressionists had of course done similar representations with oil paint years previously, but Kühn’s diligence lasted well into the 20th century: creating a body of work modern in scope that continues to impress and inspire. In a sumptuous monograph I highly recommend published in 2010: “Heinrich Kühn: The Perfect Photograph”, the authors chose to publish the following quote attributed to Kühn: “Photography is a pictorial representation expressed in a continuous, unbroken stream of tones produced or evoked by the effects of light”.