AUSTRALIAN PICTORIALISTS
By ERIC R. MERTON
No. 1
JOHN B. EATON FRPS
1st April 1940
Page 164 - Vol. 47 No. 4 The Australasian Photographic Review
At noon on a sunny day in January I called upon Mr. J.B. Eaton as a bearer of glad tidings — he had won a bronze medal in the Landscape Section of the New Zealand International Photographic Exhibition, and I had the pleasure of conveying to him the news that his efforts had borne fruit. Alas! I was to be forestalled, as the news had already reached him from a brother in New Zealand. Nevertheless, we spent a very pleasant hour chatting about our pet subject, Photography, and a brief report on my observations, may be of interest to readers of The A.P.-R., more particularly to those who have a liking for landscape work. For those who have not had the pleasure of his acquaintance, it may be remarked that J.B. Eaton is a very modest man, and, like most people who do great things, he hides his light under a bushel, and it is only the few rays that escape around the sides that we have to grasp and make the most of.
As we learned at school, Australia is a very large country, and we know that it is full of charming places, but that doesn’t mean that we can take our camera out to some pretty spot and get a picture every time we click the shutter. The gum is a beautiful tree, and often lends itself admirably to pictorialism, but how difficult it is to isolate that one tree that we fancy so as to make it stand out from the many around it? Light, shade and atmosphere all play their part, and a tree that may be beautiful to behold before nine o’clock in the morning may be passed unnoticed by eleven. In short, pretty trees, unless taken when the light is right, do not necessarily make pleasing pictures.
To give some idea of the amount of care and trouble that is often taken when searching for good pictures, Mr. Eaton, during a recent tour, traveled over eight hundred miles, and yet was never more than one hundred and fifty miles from home — just in and out along the highways and byways in a constant search for those little landscape gems that make the productions of this worker well known throughout the world. What is it that makes the work of this man so successful? Obviously, with all the trouble taken, it is not just luck. No; it is an artistic sense coupled with the technical ability to transfer his ideas on to paper.
To gain his effects Mr. Eaton always works with negatives at one end of the tonal scale; they are always on the soft side, gained by giving a full exposure and controlled development. Many amateurs, seeing this type of negative, might be inclined to say that they were far too flat, and judging by certain fixed standards they may be. But the end justifies the means, and thus if, by using a rather contrasty enlarging paper the worker gains the effect he desires, that is all that matters, and Mr. Eaton certainly gets the results.
To my way of thinking the greatest charm of this man’s work is the lovely atmosphere that prevails in all his pictures: the feeling of warmth, sunshine and distance is always there to convey in a subtle manner the mood Mr. Eaton wishes to interpret. It is this art of being able to capture the mood of the scene that makes one man’s work stand out above others.
Now let us take as an example the picture "Cattle Tracks”. Dudley Johnson claims this to be the best landscape of 1939, and probably for all time. The quality of this superb print would gladden the heart of all those who appreciate good workmanship.
Mr. Eaton told me that out of curiosity he has returned on many occasions to the spot from which this picture was made, just to see if the same set of conditions would prevail as he met with on the day when the picture was made, but never has he seen even a remotely similar repetition of the effect.
“CATTLE TRACKS”
JOHN B. EATON FRPS
“MOUNTAIN SOLITUDE”
JOHN B. EATON FRPS
“THE WHITE FENCE”
JOHN B. EATON FRPS
“TOP OF THE HILL”
JOHN B. EATON FRPS
“THE MYSTIC BUSH”
JOHN B. EATON FRPS
“THE WINDING TRACK”
JOHN B. EATON FRPS
“THE FARM IN THE VALLEY”
JOHN B. EATON FRPS
“STORM”
JOHN B. EATON FRPS
“LANDSCAPE”
JOHN B. EATON FRPS
“A STATELY COMPANY”
JOHN B. EATON FRPS
“FARMLANDS”
JOHN B. EATON FRPS
Another charming little picture interested me greatly—the one featuring a small building on a sunlit hill and I was prompted to ask whether a shot of this nature was merely a matter of of having seen the view when passing just at the right time, or was it the outcome of being able to visualize the possibilities of such a view when seen at any time? The answer was that, whilst passing along a country road, the little house was seen from the car. Mr. Eaton drew into the side of the road, and appreciating the fact that opportunity was knocking, he locked his car and went on the prowl, and the delightful study is the result. After selecting the best viewpoint, Mr. Eaton waited for about two hours until the light was right for his purpose. Thus good pictures are made.
All J.B. Eaton’s work is done with a quarter-plate Auto-Graflex, long extension model, with an f/4.5 lens, which he always uses at full aperture. He has never at any time stopped down for landscape work; exposure control is gained entirely by shutter speed, and as a Graflex works from 1/5th of a second to l/1000th second exposure, there is still a fair margin of control.
It is quite unnecessary to go into lengthy technical details of Mr. Eaton’s developing and enlarging. As I have already said, his negatives are soft and the paper fairly contrasty; that is his individual method of working. Others may go for similar effects with stronger negatives and a soft paper — the technical side is purely a matter for the particular worker. Therefore, for making the most of landscape work, develop a keen pictorial sense, study composition — particularly the works of J.B. Eaton — and remember that the end justifies the means.
As a final gesture of goodwill to The A.P.-R. "J.B.” handed me a large portfolio of his favorite prints, many of which were the only prints made, and therefore of very great value. Reproductions of eleven of these prints accompany these notes, and will tell you more of this great worker’s ideals than I possibly can with pen and ink.
JOHN B. EATON FRPS
It is with the greatest pleasure that we present in this issue a Portfolio of reproductions of the pictorial landscape work of Mr. John B. Eaton FRPS. A great deal of care has been paid to these reproductions at every stage, and we believe that as letterpress reproductions they represent a distinct achievement.
At the same time, in fairness to Mr. Eaton’s reputation, we desire to place before our readers the fact that, of course, no letterpress photo-engraving in a single color can possibly be considered the facsimile of an actual photograph.
To begin with, the printer is only using black ink on white paper, whereas the photographer may tone his image to any shade of brown or black, greenish-black, bluish-black, as he chooses, and, moreover, he may use a tinted paper, or dye his paper to suit his interpretation. Again, the printer must necessarily use highly-glazed art paper without texture, whereas the pictorial photographer uses a paper of a chosen surface containing a definite surface texture — an d this in addition to any texture he may have secured by purely photographic means.
Finally, in reducing a picture 15 inches wide to 7 inches wide there must be a certain loss through the quarter-scale reproduction.
Keeping these facts in mind, we are definitely proud of the way we have been able to place these pictures before our readers, and believe that they will be an inspiration to all.