WIDE SCOPE GIVEN

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 89, Issue 227, 25 September 1945, Page 7

WIDE SCOPE GIVEN

INDUSTRIAL PHOTOGRAPHY HIGHLIGHTS DESCRIBED Some of the highlights of industrial and educational photography were described by Mr. A. G. W.’ Sparrow (Auckland) in an address to delegates who attended the annual conference in Wanganui of the New Zealand Professional Photographers’ Association. Industrial photography called for a variety of equipment and a method of approach different from tliat of studio work, said Mr. Sparrow'. Each job required a separate technique, according to the class of photograph wanted by industrial executives. On one occasion, Mr Sparrow added, he was required to obtain a series of pho.ographs of a new refrigerator at half an hour's notice, but he had not seen the factory where the pictures had to be taken. Because of lighting arrangements and the quantity of machinery about lhe factory, this particular job involved considerable technical arrangements. As fort photographers for the U.S. Navy at Auckland his firm had been assigned to some unusual jobs. On one occasion a badly damaged tank landing ship arrived and the U.S. authorities wanted a close photographic record of the damage. As a result 25 flash photographs were taken of various parts of the ship from the keel to the decking. These pictures were sent to America as a guide for repair work. , The making of pictorial records of accidents which involved litigation was another aspect of industrial photography. In one case, said Mr. Sparrow, he had reproduced the circumstances under which a workman’s hand was badly injured in a shipbuilding yard. As this had to be done some months after the mishap it involved the reconstruction of the original scene, general views of the factory and position of the ship concerned. The vessel had gone to the Pacific, but a scale model was available and this was used for one seiies of pictures. Seven sets of each series were prepared for the Court, as usual. In addition, said Mr. Sparrow, heh ad discovered in the course of his photographic work a fact regarding one of the machines which resulted in the workman involved in the accident winning his claim for compensation. Such work commanded good fees when a photographer was known to be an expert at dealing with idustrial subjects of all kinds. Some such jobs mav mean an hour’s work for one print and a good deal of arranging of special lighting. He had found the synchronised flash method the best for this class of work.

“It is a case of inventing on every job,” Mr. Sparrow added. “We have to get an air of spontaneity into such photography.” Photography had taken on a more general appeal not only, to industrial and commercial enterprises, but also to Government departments, said Mr. Sparrow. His firm produced film strips for the Education Department. These covered industrial and other subjects and were done on 35 millimetre film. They were a series of stills, sometimes a mixture of photography and drawings, which permitted each picture to be studied separately.