EARLY PHOTOGRAPHY

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 3717, 2 November 1926, Page 7

EARLY PHOTOGRAPHY

I METHODS USED YEARS AGO. ! I 1 i I A photograph gallery ol the seventies, I where heads ol young and old were I securely braced with iron “ rests ” for the long time exposures then necessary. | was reproduced m Chicago by the Chii eago Historical Society lor the lortyi fourth annual convention ol the Photo- ! j gruphers’ Association ol America. I Mr Silas P. Alelander, a veteran pilei tograplier, who dates his experience : back to the daguerreotype days, ap- | pea red *n the reproduced studio lo tell i the progress of the art as invention foi- | lowed invention, daguerreotype yielding 1.0 amber-type, which was* succeeded Iby tintype, wet plate, and then : dry plate methods. i Mr Melander recalled ids discovery i of the art of retouching, previously I unknown here. Air Rounder J. M‘Cori mick, a prominent Chicagoan ol the early period, called io see proofs ol ids ; photographs. | I “They will be better when they are ; retouched,” said the enterprising young ; . photographer, proud of the art he had just acquired through Ids own ' expen-: ! meiits. ! i “ Don't yon put a lie on my face.” ; was the vigorous answer, i Blurred effects of diffused light seen in many portrait photographs to-day is not a sound artistic method. Colonel Eduard ,1. Steichen, chief photographer lor ‘ Vogue’ and ‘ A unity Fair’ Magazines, told the convention. He once , I used this method himself, he said, but j : was now convinced that it was a mis- . ’ take. The only blurring permissible, be j held, is the slight effect of the move- ; ment caused by the model’s breathing. , Colonel Steichen met enthusiastic response when he declared that it was 1 the photographer’s duty not to try to I express his own personality in his work, : ' hut to seek first to understand the per- I son or thing he was photographing. Even a matchbox should be understood, be said. The photographer should study the geometric beauty of its hues, should , ; think about Hs characteristics. “ Alter 1 study it in this way ! pho- . i fograph, not my impression, but that., box as I understand it.” he said.