Huntsville gazette., 1885-07-11
BLENDED FACES.
What the Scientific Photographers Hsvs
Accomplished.


What tho Scientific Photographers Hsvs
4 Accomplished.
The scientific photographers have
accomplished wonderful thing. They
have succeeded in producing an actual
portait of the man who exists and
whom no man ever saw.
The assertion is not as fanciful as it
seems. In the last issue of Science ap-
pear four portraits illustrating what
has been accomplished. The method
Of composite photography, devised orig
inally by Francis Castor, is simply
this: Given a number of men or wo-
men, shadowy photographs of each are
taken, and, from all these shadows
blended is produced face. 1t is a face
of no one of those who sat, but it is
the face of human being whose coun-
tenance expresses all their traits. This
is the theory of the photographer. The
face produced bears out the idea It is
a clearly defined countenance with an
expression of its own. 1t is something
striking and fascinating. In one of
the photographs printed twelve mathe-
maticians have their faces blended in a
new countenance. 1t is the typical
mathematician Sixteen naturalists'
faces form one, those of thirty-one
painters another There is wonder
ful resemblance between the two faces
thus produced. Naturalists and paint
ers alike are students of form and color
and outline. 1t is a new face produced
by this queer process. No one OF
the original faces is reproduced.
The remarkable device elm
mates that source-so far as it
appears in the face-of so much of
of our happiness and unhappiness,
1.-The personal equation" Like the
body after death, it disappears, but
still exists, though, unlike the body
after death, it is not dissipated through
all nature but is condensed into one
entity, a visible thing.
The striking thing about these COM
posite faces is that the blending seems
to bring out in bold relief of express
sion the dominant trait of the class.
The one prevailing idea of the group
shows in the combined face strongly.
1t suggests vast possibilities from this
discovery of the photographers. The
face shows the nature Of a class, its
strength and weakness, its degree OF
kindliness and dignity, its faults and
follies. 1t is the reflection of the soul
of the group. What studies might
be made on this idea, what So
cial and political reforms suggested by
its pursuit, and how curious and inter
esting would be the result of some COM
binatiOns!
1t is the fact that the central idea SO
protrudes itself in the developed coun-
tenance which makes the experiment
attractive. 1t would be interesting to
combine the faces of score of prize
fighters to secure the resultant con-
scious brute, to mingle the faces of a
city's ward politicians and get the face
of creature so crafty, and covetous.
and INSCRIPTIONS. as to methods
that it would be alarming. Would the
faces Of dozen clergymen reveal one
with kindly eye for the sisters and a
look betokening that a ''cal' would
be felt for that place offering the larg
est salary? And what sort of face
would the combination of those of
dozen leading editors producer There
is a charm about the idea. What a
face could be constructed from the
money-makers. the men who steal
franchises and live on indirect taxation
of the public! How the S mark would
come out in that countenance, how
foxy would become the nose Of which
in the individual we scarcely note the
dishy. sidelong indcntation. And SO
might be made experiments with hun
dred types.
Perhaps by athousand tests, blending
| the faces of those with at least clean
records, picture could be produced
which would tell better story. which
would be recognized without debate as
belonging to the ideal man; strong,
with fierce but restrained passions, but
kind and wise. Unfortunately that
man in the flesh could never be pro-
duced. Our system of blending blood
in real life would not allow the ages
upon ages of requisite stirpiculture.
OF course these are but fancies. Yet
in Gaeton's discovery there is prob
ably the germ of what will result in a
thousand practical benefits. The aver
age of forms is frequent requisite OF
the artist and the naturalist. A use
for the average offaces will soon come.
Chicago 1r1bune.