William Barnes on Photography

Photography, however helpful it is to artists, cannot take the place of high art, which always looks from marred to unmarred beauty; while photography must take blemishes with primary good. As I once went with a photographic friend to take the view of an old mansion, we found in the foreground the stumps of a row of headless poplars. We wanted the house, but not the stumps. But no; the sun was too faithful to belie his subject. It was all or none with Apollo. One might have the house with every turret, window, and line of tracery; but one must take the tree-stumps.

From Thoughts on Beauty and Art, Macmillan's Magazine, June, 1861