The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-10-19
ALL FOR VANITY.
How Plain Women May Secure At
traetiye Pictures.
Helpful Hints from Famous Artists-You
Must Know How to Dress = Then :.
Comes the Pose to Suit the Dress
--Sarony on the Fashions.
TcopYR1GHr, 1872,

bore and disappointment you have al.
ways thought it. If you choose, it is
the easiest thing in the world to get a
photograph which doesn't fatter you
until your own lover couldn't recognize
it. but which does show all your good
points, and weaves a little romance all
around you. Now, in the first place,
for whom are you having the picture
taken and what do you want it to tell
Iof yourself? Choose your mood, dress
for it, let the photographer guess it,
and then reveal it to the world in the
curves of your form and the expression
of your face. That is easy, for you've
been doing just that all your life, you
know.
eff you want something you cansend
to your relatives and your other enc
mics don't choose mood, but cross
question the photographer about. the
best side of your face. There is really
an immense difference in many faces.
Then choose q pose which will wear
well-one not impassioned, sad or glad,
but quietly meditative, as you would
appear among strangers or a crowd.
I'll tell you in two words how to pose,
but you will find my reasons for them
further along. Have some idea to con-
vey, and convey it by the most powerful
of all languages signs.
1t was the photograph of queenly
woman, who stood in a perfect pose,
looking at dream or reality just be
yond her. A dozen others besides my
self crowded about it, wondering at the
marvellous form and finish Of this speci-
men of Photographic art us it art
solely, or is it perfectly natural atti-
tude of natural woman, and who is
she, anyhow" l questioned, and
hurried into the studio of the artist who
had produced the picture to find out
how he did it all.
"Sit down." he said. 'Art is long, you
know, and this may take some time.
Photographing is but the imitation Of
the natural, and in this picture the
sitter, who is an actress ALSO an imita-
the camera to do clever trick. This
woman. you see, has splendid form,
and the pose is taken AMPLY and solely
to bring out the line of waist and hips.
Without it the picture would have been
taken without an object, and you
wouldn't have looked twice at it. See
here, the entire series of pictures is
taken to display that perfection, but
you wouldn't guess it, and that's where
my art comes in. The attitude of this
lis negligent, but have not failed to
show the characteristics of the woman.
II watched hermoving about my studio
and learned that she is always dig
nifed. In her motions she is a queen.
$50 made her nature explain itself in
these quiet poses
San actress must be more satisfac-
tory sitter than the society woman"
said /.
''She is, thousand times, because she
lis in sympathy with you and knows you
are working out some design by which
an emotion, an idea, or suggestion is
to be conveyed. Lillian Russell never
Offered hint but once, and then she
apologized for interfering with my bust
ness But the fashionable woman
knows how to manage it, and thinks
you're bound to impose on the pub
lie by giving her what she wants. There
are just few broad principles of pos
ing which everyone should know. A
woman should never have full-length
photograph unless her form is fine or
her attitudes are passionate, full OF
life, feeling, beauty or whateve.
it is that makes one love a wom-
All. Dress has much to do with this
incoming fashion of full-length photo
graphs, too. The bell skirt and the
pretty demi-train make SO many things
possible. Why, you can almost con-
struct a history around woman with
a bow of ribbon, fold of cloth or a
piece of lace. When have to do that
begin at the feet, and attend to the head
last, or let it take care ofiitsef entirely.
All ] want is to express some idea, to
make the woman seem to have an aim
in what she does, but this the average
sitter can't comprehend. She looks at
you with black suspicion, and she won't
work with you. If an instant's self
forgetfulness produces something ex-
cellent, if she throws herself into an at
titude which tells thousand things OF
her nature, and you rush back to the
camera shouting: Don't move for your
lifer oh, gracious! what does she do but
look blank and rigid and expressionless,
and say: i never was so uncomfortable
before OF course, 1t is all over then.
But if woman does pose easily and in
diligently, her likeness will be more
real than that of the best actress one
sees, unless, Of course, the actress pos
sesses consummate art, or a form which
can make you forget any other item.
The actress has SO long created a part
to play that her individuality gets di-
luted as it were. Lillian Russell, as
Queen Elizabeth, is, first Lillian Rus
sell, and then Queen Elizabeth. There
is no association, no imagination in
such a picture, and the result, perfect
as reproductive art, muststill be some
what disappointing.
"But beautiful, warm woman, who
isn't afraid of expressing her nature, or
letting me do it-and there you have
these enhancing pictures of society
LEADERS whom we all know" Here the
artist was called away, and I walked
about, analysing the pretty pastels,