The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1901-01-04
THEY DON'T LOOK PLEASANT.
a Remarkable Collection OF
Photographs.


II am the owner" said a distin-
guished amateur photographer who
was in the city recently, ''of what I
have no hesitation in declaring to be
the most remarkable collection of por-
traits ever made along any special line.
They are about hundred in number,
and nearly all OF celebrities but their
peculiarities lies in the fact that the
subjects are represented in every i'm
aginable stage of irritation, ranging
from mere painful surprise to white
hot, sizzling rage. You can see In a
glance, too, that there is no posing
about them: they see the real thing
and consequently, as character studies,
they are absolutely unique. need
something like a dozen more to COM
plete the set, as originally mapped out,
and as soon as / secure them I pro-
pose to have the collection bound in
large Morocco album, with this inscrp-
ton lettered in gold on the cover:
Whom the gods destroy they first
| make mad.
THE idea suggested ITSELF continued
the distinguished amateur, while was
sitting In Washington gallery one
afternoon waiting for a friend who was
having a photo taken. As usual, the
operator told him to look pleasant
and it suddenly occurred to me that
this familiar phrase was responsible
for the fact that nearly all photo
graphic portraits are more or less I'M
real. When a man looks pleasant, 1
said to myself, he Invariably looks I'M
natural, because, in the first place. he
Is aping an emotion he doesn't feel, and,
in the second place, a smile almost al
ways masks the true temperament.
But suppose, on the contrary, that the
photographer did something to make
his sitter look mad what a revelation
of character he would secure, That
opened up fascinating line of thought.
In moments of anger we are off our
guard, Our real nature flashes out.
The weaknesses and infirmities we have
been scrupulously hiding from the
world burst forth as plain as print, and
snap shot at such an instant would
be a human document of unparalleled
Importance. Before / left the gallery
l had determined in a general way
upon the experiment which T subse-
quently put into successful execution
"The main difficulty" the amateur
went on, was mechanical 1t is easy
enough to photograph him, but how to
do both in succession was something
of puzzle. | might walk up to John |
Smith, for example, and say, You're a |
lar! but the chances are a hundred to |
one that he would punch my head be- |
fore I had time to focus him in my |
An M ooIy
short, I finally solved the problem by |
a simple device, which I have christen- |
ed an irritator.' I used an ordinary |
box camera, provided with two push |
buttons When L press the first you |
hear a sharp metallic sound, exactly |
like the opening and closing of a lens
shutter, but much louder That is |
merely the irritator and has nothing to |
do with taking the picture. The photo |
is really secured by touching the second |
button, which is perfectly noiseless.
MY modus operandi is something
like this: I select my victim, trying to |
meet him at some function where pho
togra ply is barred, such, for instance.
as a funeral and approach him from
The rear. After getting him accura tely
focused 1 press the irritator button,
and as everybody nowadays knows the
of the peculiar click, he wheels
around instantly, enraged at the idea
If being snap-shotted. AS he does so
quietly touch the other button and Sc
cure an indelible record of his exaspera-
ion. He labors under the delusion, of
course, that he was photographed at
he time of the first click, and consoles
himself with the reflection that only
cot view of his back, after all, so in
he majority of cases he merely waves
ne away and cautions me mot to do
hat again. His degree of wrath as he