Women Before the Camera.

Auckland Star, Volume XVII, Issue 286, 4 December 1886, Page 3

Women Before the Camera.

Women are eelf-conscious enough, though under certain conditions. I don't believe that in all the fine collection of photographs exhibited this year there are half a dozen girls who have not as sumed the expression they were taken in. It is curious to note the character displayed in these unknown faces—the bias toward the sentimental, as in that young lady's with the fine eyes that gaze laneuishingly upward, with her pretty hands clasped under her rather sharp chin. Ac a rule, I think thin girls most affect the moon-struck attitude. A cast of melancholy does not suit excessive avoirdupois, The fat ones affect dignity as a general thing, and a fine reserve,- even a haughtiness, indeed, before which the. bravest photographer muat quail at times. Then there is the cynical expression, though this iB raro, and the expression of extreme felicity and goodwill toward all mankind, and the trustful, questioning expression, and the debonnaire saucy look, like that upon the countenance of the pretty girl in the sailor hat and yachting suit. Men, as a general thing, affect either extreme sternness or lofty intellectuality in photographs, but a man's picture is much more likely to be a faithful reproduction of his common mood than a woman's ia of hers. Unconsciousness, we are told, is the last effect of good breeding. If photographs are to to be regarded as indicating our possession of it, we have not advanced very far.