The Pine Wood

The Pine Wood

In August of 1907, some of the prize winning photographs and others from the 1905 contest were enlarged as part of the Kodak Exhibition and placed on public view in London, at No. 40, Strand, W.C. These included many of the same prize-winning photographs that had previously toured the United States in multiple exhibitions in different cities but with an emphasis on English work. J. Burns was singled out for his photograph seen on this site titled The Pine Wood, although for some reason it is the sole original photograph published in the 1905 catalog that did not win an award:

But when we come to the Novice Class we see the remarkably fine quality of the Eastman enlargements. Take No. 45, for instance; the original negative of “The Pine Wood” was taken by Mr. J. Burns with a ten-shilling “Brownie,” and yet the enlargement makes a truly delightful picture of huge dimensions. The very imperfection of marginal definition, which is inherent in all cheap lenses, becomes an actual virtue in the enlarger’s hands; and the softening of definition towards the edges of the picture tends to concentrate attention towards the path running through the centre of the pine wood. Over and over again we find slight imperfections in the shadow details corrected, and dark masses of shadows relieved and rendered luminous in the enlargement. Thus really good and artistic work can be done with these small cheap cameras if Messrs. Eastman are allowed to complete the operation.  (1.)

Mounted using Kodak dry mounting tissue on the volume manilla leaf, the photograph is printed on Mezzo-Tone photographic paper.

engraved on volume leaf: J. Burnes (sic)

1.  excerpt: The Kodak Picture Exhibition: in: The Amateur Photographer: London: August 27, 1907: p. 200

Title
The Pine Wood
Photographer
Country
Medium
Atelier
Ephemera
Year
Dimensions

Image Dimensions8.8 x 6.2 cm | 8.0 x 5.5 cm

Support Dimensions23.5 x 17.4 cm | manilla leaf with deckled edge on lower margin