Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1889-03-12
A PHOTOGRAPHERS TALKS.
SARONY DEPlORES THE CHANGES
IN THE METHODS OF HIS ART.

I'm tHe ME- HODS OF HIS ART.
The Dry Plate Process Defeats Efforts to
secure "a Good Pori rait instantaneous
photography A Serious Grievance
Against Portrait P,,inters
photography today does not give as good
results as IL gave eighteen years ago, said
Mr.. Otto Sarony whel questioned as to the
progress of his art
DO we owe nothin,, then, to instantsne
Gus photographyFn
Don't misunderstood me. am not cry
ing down the results o. inventions that have
enabled us 10 do all sorts of things by pho
geography That the early photographists did
not even dream OF. lt is undeniable. how
ever, that as means of reproducing artistic
portraits photography today is not what II
once was, and this is luc in part TO some of
the very inventions that are regarded as the
most important in the art The dry plate,
ior example, enables u5 TO take negative In
from half second 10 two seconds The old
wet pblte often requ red 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
tanned with ease twenty years ago"
instantaneous photography would enable
you stiii Curther to hasten the processes:
would it give less satisfactory results than
you now obtain;"
Ihe time occupied in taking a negative
by instantaneous photography is almost in.
appreciable, say one-tenth of q second but
that process is not Used i'll Photographic
stuiioS. 10 get satisfactory portrait un-
der sl;yliGht cut off some of the LIGHT
and thus tone down effects The instantape-
Gus process needs a strong light, such as you
obtain III the open air.
IN oNE-TENTn OF A SECOND.
Here, continued Mr.. Sarony, drawing
from his pocket a small negative sis an in.
terestinS little thing that illustrates what !
am saying. This is IA little interior that |
took at home on a dark, rainy afternoon bv
exploding powdered magnesium. | could
nave taken II quite Us well at midnight You
see that the furniture is very distinct, and
even that miniature of a cherub and the
photographs on the nantel 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 tu take his picture Hs
was not quick enough, however as you see.
and there he Is. The process probably occu-
pied one-tenth OF second 1t is done by
blowing powdered mag nesum across an alco- |
hohc tame. The fash is brief but intense |
It could not loo satisfactorily used, however |
III producing portraits, for the reason that
the photographic would have no oppor- |
tunlty 10 pose his sub ject and study in the |
camera effects of light and shade
instantaneous phot tograrhy has greatly |
aided the amateur, AMI the result has been |
to drive professional photographists out of |
the open air business 1t does not pay a 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 |
ana IN Europe are amateur photographists, |
and that they use our art in aid of their own !
| believe that the marvellous minuteness of |
Meisonnier's work is due to the fact that he |
pants great deal from photographs He |
has been an amateur photographic since the |
days OF the ambrotype, and have no reason |
10 pelleve that he has changed his method
a TRICK OF PORTRAIT PAINTERS
Il am told that Jerome also uses photog- |
raphy In his work, auC it il easy to believe, |
when ono recalls the character of his pictures |
II 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 a |
great reputation came over here and painted |
many portraits OF wealthy persons at great |
prices. IN one instance he painted the por-
trait Of a rich woman and il is an absolute |
TACT that he photographed her on canvas and |
painted over the photograph 1t was regarded
as speaking Likeness, and the artist was
paid $1,000 or $4,000. Now it Is not many
years since that sort of thing was done by
III this country but the ar
lists made such an 1utcry that 1t 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
utterly different result from what he had e1-
pected. Trained photoyraphists understand
the art of posing, and persons obtain most
portraits by giving themselves
INTO the hands of the photographer"
Would not photogr aphing in colors aid
you in making race distinctonsr'
There is no such thing as photographing
N coiors, and see no prospect of its perfec-
lion. What is now cal ed photographing is
merely an effect of lithography. No, the
,uture improvements in photography are
likely to result from the study of posing, and
-he management Of light and shade. Just
now general excellence and novelty in style
are the photographers aims. New York
Cor St. Louis Globe-Democrat.