The Dickinson press., 1889-05-18
A PHOTOGRAPHER TALKS.
sARoNY DEPLoREs THE CHANGES
IN THE METHODS OF HIS ART.

The Dry Plate Process Defeats Efforts to
Secure Good Port GUS
photography A Serious Grievance
Against Portrait Painters.
photography today does not give as good
results us it gave eighteen years ago." said
Mr. Otto Sarony when questioned rs 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 lis to do all sorts of things by pho
Biography that the early photographists did
not even dream of. It is undeniable, how.
ever, that as 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 US the
a"st important i'll the art. Tho dry plate
'or example, enables us to take negative in
from half second to two seconds The old
wet plate often required fifteen seconds or
onger, but it gave more roundness to the
picture and made better portrait If we
should ask customers to sit fifteen seconds
how we should soon lose our trade. Modern
taste has sacrificed something that we OBJ
tanned with case twenty years ago."
instantaneous photography would enable
YOU Sttll further to hasten the processes.
would it give less satisfactory results than
you nov obtain"
The tlme occupied i'll taking negative
oy instantaneous photography is almost III,
''prcclable, say one-tcnth of second, but
al process is not used in Photographic
-u'lios, To get satisfactory portrait un
IL Il sky!isht we cut off some of the lish,
md thus tone down effects. The instantaue-
'aS process needs Il strong light, such as YOU
"oiain i'll the open air
IN oSE-TENTn OF A SECOND
Here" continued Mr.. Sarony. drawinr
IRON his pocket small negative, "is all i'll
terestinS little thing that illustrates what |
am saying. This is n little interior that !
took at home on q dark, rainy afternoon, by
exploding powdered magnesium. could
have taken it quite rs well ut midnight You
sec that tho furniture is very distinct, ana
even that miniature of a chcrub and the
photographs Oh tho mantel arc perfectly
produced. The boy is n little dim because Ii.
ran away when tho explosion came Yes, it
is an actual fact that he was scared Off by the
very light that was to tako his picture. He
was not quick enough, however, as YOU see
and there he is Tho process probably occu
pied one-tcnth of n second. 1t is dono by
blowing powdered magnesium across an aco
holc tame. The flash is brief, but intense
1t could not be satisfactorily used however.
IN producing portraits, for tho reason that
the photographic would havo no oppor
tunity to pose his subject and study in the
camera effects of light and shade.
nSf n ft,n Nt,<+,
aided the amateur, and tho result has been
TO drive professional photographers out OF
the open air business. 1t does not pay pho
tosraphlst to devote himself to outdoor
WORK, There nre 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 photographers.
and that they use our art in aid of their own
believe that tho marvellous minuteness of
Melsonnler's work is duo to the fact that he
Paihls great deal from photographs He
has been an amateur photographic since tho
days of tho ambrotype and have no reason
to believe that he has changed his method
A TRICK OF PORTRAIT PAINTEps.
~ am told that Jerome also uses photog.
raphy in his work, and it is easy to believe,
when one recalls tho character of his pictures
1t seems to me perfectly legitimate art Tho
artist just makes his sketch from nature and
then relieves his model from laborious posing
by working from photographs in tho matter
Oh detail. One thing that has been dono by
portrait painters is not quite so dcfcnsiblc
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 tho por-
Trait OF rich woman, and it is an absolute
TACT that he photographed her on canvas and
painted over the photograph. 1t was regarded
Us speaking likeness and tho artist was
paid $4,000 or $1,000 Now it is not many
years since that sort of thing was dono by
photographists in this country, but tho ar.
lists made such an outcry that it WIS
stopped.
vt is an amusing thing to see the attempts
at posing mado by portrait painters, who
bring their sittcrs to us for photographs. The
artist believes that llo can get just tho righ,
effect by posing tho subject himself, and is
surprised to find that tho negative shows an
utterly different result from what he had cx-
pcctcd. Trained photographers understand
the art of posing, and persons obtain most
satisfactory portraits by giving themselves
INTO the hands of the photographer.
Would not photographins in colors aid
you in making race dstinctonsf
there is no such thing as photographins
III colors, and sec no prospect of its pcrfcc-
tion. What is now called photographing is
merely an effect of lithography No. the
future improvements in photography arc
likely to result from tho study of posing, and
the management of light and shade. Just
now general excellence and novelty in style
arc the photographists' aims New York
Cor st. Louis Globe Democrat