The Modern way in picture making : published as an aid to the amateur photographer . n, and The Hand of Manis frequently instanced as an example of this quality. As the lines ofcomposition in this picture are anything but simple, I have come to theconclusion that the average person confounds simplicity and directnessof subject with the totally different quality of simplicity in composition. 164 SIMPLICITY IX COMPOSIIIOy. Had Gossip-Katwyk been instanced as a picture showing simplicity incomposition, it would ha\e been nearer the truth—vet this picture presentedto me in its composition one of t
The Modern way in picture making : published as an aid to the amateur photographer . n, and The Hand of Manis frequently instanced as an example of this quality. As the lines ofcomposition in this picture are anything but simple, I have come to theconclusion that the average person confounds simplicity and directnessof subject with the totally different quality of simplicity in composition. 164 SIMPLICITY IX COMPOSIIIOy. Had Gossip-Katwyk been instanced as a picture showing simplicity incomposition, it would ha\e been nearer the truth—vet this picture presentedto me in its composition one of the hardest nuts I e\er tried to a homelike, e\-er\-day subject presenting familiar objects, the tendencyis to cry : How charmingly simple in its composition ! Unconscious ofthe fact that the subject appeals to us and not its linear or e\-en pictorialtreatment. And now I must return to my anecdote with which I began. So com-plex is the simple subject Simplicity in Composition that these stray andrandom thoughts have not begun even to outline it. There is one piece of. GossipKdt-^yk. ALFRED STIEGLITZ. simple and direct advice which I wish to iterate and re-iterate—for I believethis is written for one who has mastered the A B C of the technique ofphotography and is about ready to di\-e into the mysterious deep of art :Observe the work of recognized artists—I do not mean look at it, butobserve it—make it your own. Then study the appearance of nature moreclosely than ever h&iox^—eicryichcre. And there is also one simple anddirect warning I would like to give : Avoid books on composition as youwould the plague, lest they destroy in your mind all other considerationsthan the formula which they lay down. If you must be taught bv others,not being able to teach yourself, seek out a broad-minded teacher, butguard your originality as the one precious possession which mav sa^-e youfrom turning out machine-made «-ork. Clouds and the Landscape. The subjeft of clouds in
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