Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-03-01
THE CAMERAS PATRONS.
THE PUBLIC APT TO MAKE NEW
PHOTOGRAPHERS POPULAR.

A Business Almost Entirely Dependen.
on tho Fluctuations Of Public Favor.
Progress in the Art Of Photographic.
The Dasuerreotype.
There seems to be no business so en-
.irely dependent on the fluctuations of
popular favor as that of the photographer.
A moments reflection on the part Of any
body who is acquainted with the history
of photographers in New York for the
past ten Or fifteen years, will show that
their business is evidently not subject to
the same conditions as is attendant on the
business of other trades and professions.
Photographers do not start in small
way, build up gradually paying bust
ness and eventually secure an established
patronage, which then continues with
them without any special effort in the
way of advertising.
The popular photographer jumps into HIS
popularity as q general thing inside of a
single year, and replaces in public esteem
older firms whose names are familiar to
everybody, both in private and public life.
The older men retire to the background
and the artistic character Of their pictures
is sneered at, and comparatively new men
are hailed as the apostles of modern pho
Biography and their work described as the
latest and the best. The older men are
almost forgotten, and their business falls
away and they retire to side streets and
modest shops. No photographer of fifteen
years ago is known as q leading photog-
rapher today. The men who then secured
the great men of the country, the leading
actresses on the stage and the beauties of
the drawing room for their subjects, are
either out of business altogether or are
doing small trade with modest family
people and charging extremely moderate
prices.
FICKLENESs OF PUBLIC FAVOR.
A photographer the other day said that
he did not believe it was possible for any
man or any firm in the business to get to
the top and stay there. He had gotten to
the top himself once, and he had made it
point to keep up with the times, to use
all the modern Improvements in photo
graphic materials and processes, and had
employed all his spare time devising new
and attractive styles of photographs. But
notwithstanding all his efforts, both in
business and artistic way, he was not able
to keep the leading position he had at
tanned, and for no other reason in the
world except that public favor, SO far as
his business is concerned, is tickle beyond
anything that he could describe. He was
gradually replaced by new arrivals in the
field and saw his customers going to men
whom he believed had none of his ability,
and whom he knew had but a quarter of
his experience. He explained this defec-
ton by saying that people who are in the
habit of having their photographs taken
at stated intervals, have the quality of
human vanity in them developed to an
unusual extent and are possessed of
continual desire to try new experiments
and reach fresh results. They do not ex-
pect, perhaps, that the latest photographer
will make them out any more beautiful
than the one whom they have just left
but they expect that he will give them
pictures which will give new significance
to their features.
Speaking of keeping up with the times,
a photographer said the other day that
there was nothing in modern photography
which demonstrated its progress more
absolutely than the improvements directed
to reducing the time necessary for the
securing OF the impression. Instantaneous
photography is the growth Of very recent
times. Dozens of photographers in New
York expose their plates and secure re-
suits within second, but this is by no
means instantaneous photography. How
great the progress in this matter has
really been may be estimated from the
fact that when daguerreotypes were first
taken in this country, forty odd years ago,
it was necessary that the plate should be
exposed for fully twenty-five minutes be-
fore the impression was deemed sufficient
for the picture. OF course, in this twenty
five minutes the subject had to sit per
fectly still. This was certainly as hard
work as any artists model does today In
fact, no artists model is expected to pose
for that time without rest. Six seconds
is now regarded as very long exposure
New York Mail and Express.