The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-07-23
FASHION IN
PHOTOGRAPH
Origin Of Several
Very Popular
Fads.
HOW PROCESSES
WERE DISCOVERED
Mezzotint and Crystoleum Pic.
lures the Results Of
Accident.

Two or three kodak enthusiasts acct
dentally met yesterday, and the con-
versation turned upon Photographic
fads and how they are introduced.
Frank Davey who was of the assem-
bly,, expressed himself on the subject
as follows, and his remarks were jotted
down by newspaper man who hap
pened to be present:
There is just as great a fashion in
photograp hic pictures as there is in
woman's dress. 1 will give you an idea
how some of the peculiar photographs
become a fashion.
There was picture dealer in the
West End of London who sold cheap
chromos and photographs 1t dawned
upon him that if he had a camera and
lens he could copy these photographs
and reap the benefit. He accordingly
bought a Photographic outfit, but his
knowledge of photography was so linn
tied that he could not finish the pic
lures.
THE pictures looked brown or dir
! ty yellow, yet they reSembled an old
mezzotint engraving which had grown
| yellow with age, made by BartolozZf
nearly 200 years ago; so he called them
| nezzotints The people in the neigh
/
! photographed in the new mezzotint
! process. These pictures became circu-
| lated among the fashionable people,
and mezzotint became a craze. That
season and the next the inventor made
a small fortune. Other photographers
/ had to make the same picture for the
public demanded it, and had to pay
for it,
Another man pasted photograph
upon piece of glass, then wanted to
! take it off, so put it into some water.
The albumen upon the picture being
linsoluble would not leave the glass, so
| the paper came off without any trou-
BILE leaving The photograph sticking to
the glass, making a semi-transparent
picture. Looking at it from the front
the man could see the color of any
object behind. Ee experimental with
] some colored papers then with some
paints which gave the photo quite an
effective appearance, because it was
impossible to see the crude brush work
1.-The idea was afterwards improved by
! sticking the photo upon concaye and
convex glasses, and rubbing wax upon
it, which gave it a crystalline appear
ance. The inventor therefore called il
the crystoleum picture. 1t became the
fad, and he made small fortune out
of it.
Il You will find a great many of these
fads were introduced by amateurs One
of the latest high art pictures, as 1t is
called, was introduced by a negative
being accidentally broken. The picture
was published in a magazine with a
part of the lady's head cut off. The
aesthetic public demanded similar pic
lures.
'Some years ago met Eugene Field
! / asked him to sit down and tell me
a story. which he did, and his facial
expression was something wonderful
AS he was speaking I made snapshots
getting very funny results. After that
it was the proper and latest thing to
have your picture made while you were
engaged in conversation. l have pho
tographed number of celebrated peo-
pie that way-Melton Prior, Tom Mast
NJ. S. Gable, Julian Ralph, Barnaby
and a number of others.
"At the present time the fashionable
photograph is fiat, under exposed
! badly developed affair. printed upon a
cheap bromide paper, or upon plati-
! mum and mounted upon a rough paper
initiating the crudeness of hundreds OF
| years ago. The best Photographic pa
per known is the platinum, a paper
that has been used for fifty years.