LACK OF POISE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 117, 20 May 1933, Page 3 (Supplement)

LACK OF POISE.

Do women of to-day lack composure, asks the London "Daily 'Express." They are too restless to sit still long enough to have their photographs taken by the method of 50 years ago. This criticism was made recently by one of London's prominent society photographers, after contrasting photographs of the modern and Victorian eras which were exhibited at Selfridge's. Beautiful Lady Randolph Churchill stands in her riding habit of 1885, at the foot of her stairs, serenely holding in a seemingly immovable hand a hunting crop. Her large eyes seem to gaze at one with an enviable unchanging calm. This pose was photographed in 30 seconds. In contrast is an atmospheric portrait of Miss Harriet Cohen, the pianist. She is about to play. Her hands are poised on the keyboard of her piano. She listens for the striking of the first chord. Everything about her suggests suspended movement. This was photographed in half a second.

Why cannot the modern woman sit still for 30 seconds? It is that, we appear to be sitting quietly and composed, says the photographer, but we lack the immobile poise, the control over our nerves, which made for Lady Randolph Churchill's clear portrait. Fifty years of crowded life has lost us not only the power to express "still-life," but also the inclination. To-day we demand the record of a fleeting mood, the quick expression of an idea. Our background becomes a part of us, indistinct, diffuse, and only the modem ennieni, witii its split-second lens, can flash us in the lightning changes of our lives.