San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-04-27
A PHOTOGRAPHERS TALKS.
SARoNY DEPLoRES THE CHANGES
IN THE METHODS OF HIS ART.

| Secure Good Portrait-Instantaneous
Photography A Serious Grievance
Against Portrait Painters.
Photography today does not give as good
| results as it gave eighteen years ago." said
| Mr.. Otto Sarony when questioned as to the
| progress of his art.
DO we owe nothing, then, to instantane-
GUS photography"
Don't misunderstood me. | am not cry
| ing down the results of inventions that have
| enabled us to do all sorts of things by pho
Biography that the early photographers did
| not even dream of. 1t is undeniable how
| ever, that as a means of reproducing artistic
| portraits photography today is not what it
once was, and this is due in part to some of
| the very inventions that are regarded as the
| most important in the art. The dry plate,
| for example, enables us to take a negative in
| from half a second to two seconds. The old
wet plate often required fifteen seconds or
longer, but it gave more roundness to the
picture and made better portrait. If we
should ask customers to sit fifteen seconds
now we should soon lose our trade Modern
haste has sacrificed something that we OBJ
tanned with ease twenty years ago."
instantaneous photography would enable
you still further to hasten the processes;
would it give less satisfactory results than
you now obtains'
The time occupied in taking a negative
by instantaneous photography is almost in
appreciable, say one-tenth of second, but
that process is not used in Photographic
studios. To get a satisfactory portrait I'M
der skylight we cut off some of the light
and thus tone down effects. The instantane-
GUS process needs a strong light, such as you
obtain in the open air.
IN ONE-TENTH OF SECOND.
Here" continued Mr.. Sarony, drawing
from his pocket small negative, sis an in
teresting little thing that illustrates what l
am saying This is little interior that /
took at home on dark, rainy afternoon, by
exploding powdered magnesium | could
have taken it quite as well at midnight You
see that the furniture is very distinct, and
even that miniature of a cherub and the
photographs on the mantei are perfectly
produced. The boy is little dim because he
ran away when the explosion came. Yes, it
is an actual fact that he was scared off by the
very light that was to take his picture. He
was not quick enough, however, as you see,
and there he is. The process probably occu-
pied One-tenth of a second. 1t is done by
blowing powdered magnesium across an alco-
hOhc tame The flash is brief, but intense
1t could not be satisfactorily used, however,
in producing portraits, for the reason that
the photographic swould have no oppor
tun!ty to pose his subject and study in the
camera effects Of light and shade
instantaneous photography has greatly
aided the amateur, and the result has been
to drive professional photographers out of
the open air business. 1t does not pay pho
tOgraphist to devote himself to outdoor
work. There are too many amateurs in COM
petition. | think it is not generally known,
by the way, that many artists in this country
and IN Europe are amateur photographers,
and that they use our art in aid of their own
| believe that the marvellous minuteness of
MeisOnnierS work is due to the fact that he
paints Il great deal from photographs. He
has been an amateur Photographers since the
days of the ambrOtype, and | have no reason
to believe that he has changed his method.
TRICK OF PORTRAIT PAINTERS.
Il am told that Jerome also uses photog-
raphy in his work, and it is easy to believe,
when one recalls the character of his pictures
1t seems to me perfectly legitimate art. The
artist just makes his sketch from nature and
then relieves his model from laborious posing
by working from photographs in the matter
of detail. One thing that has been done by
portrait painters is not quite so defensible
Last year foreign portrait painter with
great reputation came over here and painted
many portraits of wealthy persons at great
prices. In one instance, he painted the por
trait of rich woman, and it is an absolute
fact that he photographed her on canvas and
painted over the photograph. 1t was regarded
as speaking likeness and the artist was
paid $4,000 or $1,000 Now it is not many
years since that sort of thing was done by
photographers in this country, but the ar
fists made such an cutlery that it was
stopped.
1T is an amusing thing to see the attempts
at posing made by portrait painters, who
bring their sitters to us for photographs. The
artist believes that he can get just the right
effect by posing the subject himself, and is
surprised to find that the negative shows an