The Washington herald., 1907-03-29
GROWTH OF THE ART
OF PHOTOGRAPHY
BY FREDERIC j. HAsKIN
BY FREDERIC ]. HAsKIN.

BY FREDERl
If old Nine. Daguerre had been as quick
TO act as she was to suspect, Louis
Jacques DagGerre would have died IN an
insane asylum, and the world might have
waited a century longer for a means cf
preserving the family hkenesses on bits
OF paper or glass. Up TO the early sos
NJ. Daguerre had behaved as any other
well-balanced decorator and scene painter
should have behaved. and then he began
to experiment with liquids and attempted
to fasten sun shadows on glass or copper
sheets He babbed OF a wonderful day
when he could make portraits Of his
friends with neither brush nor pencil
In great trepidation Nine. Daguerre hur-
ried to the most noted specialist in all
France. and, weeping told these symp-
toms. To the savant's mind they spelled
nothing else but insanity, and in 1888 they
set about preparing Nj. Daguerre for q
lifelong visit TO the asylum at Bicetre
But just then the unsuspecting victim
of this plot succeeded in fastening the
shadow on the copper plate, and the art
OF photography was born
It Is far cry from DaguerTe with his
great. cumbersome camera propped on
the ground, taking a landscape that re-
quired a brilliant sun and seven or eight
hours exposure, TO the amateur of to-day
who carries a complete Outflt in square
box under one arm. and, swinging 1t at
viii, can photograph anything from an
exploding battle ship 10 a sparrow feed
ing a nice fuzzy worm 10 her brood. The
progress OF the art marks one OF the
greatest strides in modern science. Only
the man of means could have a daguerre-
0type or an ambrotype made years ago
To-day not only the man of moderate
income. but all his children may have
kodaks, and at the expenditure of a few
cents can preserve indefinitely an inter
esting family group or a bit of familiar
landscape.
When DaguerTe and the men of his
day took pictures IT was a moment0us
occasion, one 10 be entered into with
great s0Iemnity. With head held fast be-
tween two rigid iron fingers, and with
eyes fixed on the upper right hand cor
ner' Of some object, the victim had 10
sit for twenty minutes while science,
new TO this work, was transferring his
reflection to the sensitive plate hidden
back of that cyclops eye which bored
him through and through. No wonder
these quaint old-time folk look so sternly
out OF the little leathern frames. No Won
der the faces are set in such grim lines
ana the eyes gaze so sOmbeTly into fu-
IuTity. The ordeal was enough 30 pro-
duce such effects in even the most Iowa
bic and winsome faces.
The father Of artistic photography in
America is Alfred steglitz. of New York
who has made the camera reveal won
deTful effects in light and shadow and in
facial expression hitherto believed to be
possible only to painters Child life has
furnished many artistic poses that old
time daguerreans. and even painters were
unable to catch and preserve. Special
photographers have arisen in this branch
OF the work, and women have proved the
most successful, Miss Adelaide Hanscom,
OF Berkeley, Cal. being the pioneer.
Many unusual feats of photography have
astonished the world in the past few
years. The famous one Of the Flatiron
Building, in New York, taken at night,
with several hours exposure, is perhaps
the most famous in night photography,
while the Washington Arch, and the
Statue of Liberty, in New York Harbcr,
have been taken at night with magnesium
hashhght. We now have lenses fast
enough to take the finish of mile-a-min-
ute automobile races, athletes In the act
of pole-vaulting, and fast mali trains
spTinung al their best.
Cob ar
and traveller. has added much TO the
knowledge Of animal life by photograph
ing big game by fiashlight far back in the
iungles of Africa. Herds of wild ele-
phants groups of lions. zebTas. hippOpOt-
ami, crOcOdiles, gazeIles. and smaller
animals have all been followed to their
native heath and photographed. The eyes
OF the animals in his pictures often show
the wild, startled look that come to those
who are suddenly surprised.
Mrs. Gene Stratton-Porter is another in
defatigabe worker with, the camera IN
the interest Of science. Her studies of
n birds have made her famous and each
picture has been secured at the greatest
personal Inconvenience. When she goes
10 photograph a nest of eggs or birds. she
first gets acquainted with the mother bird.
sometimes taking weeks to do IL. but
finally holds the little creature in her
hands and handles the eggs without fear
of the family being broken up. To get a
picture of a certain shy. swamp bird she
drove a distance OF fourteen miles every
day for a week, wading through a deep
marsh and carrying her heavy camera
until the desired pose of the bird was OBJ
tanned She has secured excellent pic
lures of eagles and owls in their own par
naFrF In
a neighbOrhOod getting acquainted with
a colony of vultures
The two greatest discoveries in this art
at the present day are color photography
and the X-rays. II was known that the
chemical action of cOlored light has no
power TO produce pigments of the same
color as the light itself, but the problem
of reproducing the cOlors of objects was
solved by the principles of interference" ="
a discovery of NewtOn's that is exempli-
fed in the eolors of soap bubbles and
mother of pearl. and which is an appliOa-
ti0n of certain theories in regard to diff
ferent wave-lengths The srst pictures In
this process were brighter than the orig
inal objects. but this Is being corrected
through careful experiments. Prof. Roent-
gen. of Wurzburg, gave 10 the medical
world that Invaluable aid. the X-ray ma
chine Since metal and bone are Opaque
10 It. the machine discovers deformed
joints, splnteTed bones, bullets, or bits Of
shell BY its means great suffering has
been relieved.
The assertion that photography is a
means OF life-saving seems queer. until it
is understood that by its use. figures.
pictures, and letters are now transferred
10 watches and clocks. and the men who
once lost their eyesight, and often their
entire health at the work, are now