Perth Amboy evening news., 1910-10-03
PICTURE POSES.
Try Some Stunts In Front of Mir
ror Before You're Snapped.
TRAGEDIES OF THE CAMERA.

Dear Elsa-Next week I'm going to
send you n of my new photographs,
which l think are good because I
posed them myself. Conceited re-
mark! Sounds wonderfully like 1t, but
really of the many photographs taken
of myself in the course of my life
there are but three that were ever
considered successful, including this
last picture. In ah three | chose the
background, the dress and the atti-
tude. l do not mind confessing that
before | went to be 'took'' / tried over
one or two posing stunts before my
glass and said to myself, "Now, If that
comes off that will be all right; 1t will
look like me and as l like to look"
The real tragedy, my dear Elsa, lies
in the photograph that is like one, but
at ones plainest. You know the kind
l mean. (which can I have, dear, the
beautiful one or the n as I know
you" That request takes some time
to live down, doesn't it?
I'm on the picture rampage today,
so you might as well settle down for
a dissertation on the subject. AS you
know, only a few years ago photogra-
ply was at a shockingIy low ebb. Per-
sonally l prefer the frank horrors Of
an earlier decade to those terrors of.
say, fifteen years since, which were
thought $50 artistic" the period when
most women were taken in a black pic
ture hat worn with an evening frock
and the hat covered with feathers.
How ostrich feathers have progressed
too! Not long ago I was turning out
my feather drawer, and there came to
the surface a faithful old friend which
had looked upon as lengthy opu-
lence, a feather L had felt quite orlen-
tally magnificent while wearing, but
now I put 1t back with a sigh. One
seems to have grown beyond the feath-
ers of yesterday.
But to come back to photography.
How many women there are, impelled
by the advice of the fashionable pho
tographer, who array themselves for
the camera Gin the simple little frock,"
or these men will tell them that the
semi-classic Is the only gown to be
done In" In my humble opinion this
is a great mistake in most instances.
1t is wonderfully apparent, If one looks
about, how few people there are who
have good looking arms and still fewer
in which the classic dress, unless made
and worn by a genius, does not give
the wearer a iattened chest and an en-
larged waist that result In a mascu-
line type Of figure almost comic, while
wrists and hands seem exaggerated
out of all proportion.
With the simple little frock Is often
seen the careless artistic couture. Be
ware Of it unless you have masses of
hair which can be parted to roll away
in splendid pillows, waved or smooth.
from the forehead and be knotted in a
great lovely "bundle" at the back of
the head. The careless couture should
be careless only In appearance. The eff.
fortress effort must be the result Of
effort. Every flaw shows in a photo
graph.
| am an admirer of the new style OF
light background, where the figure is
the darkest part of the whole picture,
for a really pretty woman can trust
her outline. But there are many whose
outline is not their strong point.
In days TO come Ii you look over a
collection OF portraits of lovely n
of today / believe you win find those
taken with what I have called for
years "the R%eutlinger background
he's one of the famous photographers
of Paris, who poses all the fashion pic
lures for smart couturieres-will please
you most.
Passing from backgrounds, l have a
word TO say on attitude. The much
photographed are apt to put them
selves into the same position when
about to be photographed. until it be-
comes almost a joke. You recall the
once beautiful Mrs. K, the pose OF
whose head set of her classic beauty
to perfeetfon-the inselent tilt OF the
exquisite chin, the half closing of the
glorious eyes. Now-well, could she
not be done In another attitude2 Al
we see now tn her photographs is
three ehins, one of them exquisite,
and eyes once glorious, now Sits above
II hate to confess it-enereaching
cheeks. The pity Of It'll 1t Is very diff
ffcult to grow old in real life; 1T Is still
harder to do SO in a photograph, I'm
beginning to moralize, SO it's time 30
change the subject, but let me say to
the woman ambitious Of o good photo
graph of herself to beware Of an easily
| tired of mode; that is a golden rule.
aTsrturs Book and Tattooing Craze
How does this idea strike you as an
amusement for your guests on wet and
duh days during week end yisirs-the
torture book and the tattooing crazes
In the torture book n asks ones
friends to draw bIlndfolded pictures
OF themselves. The strange notion orig
mated In England, and it Is a wary
celebrity who can Dodge the owners Of
these books. The keenest rivalry exists
between those who possess them as to
the interest and Importance OF the peo-
pie who figure In their pages, and
many q friendship, 1t Is said has been
broken because one woman secured q
portrait Of Caynsu by himself or some
other notable. To be strictly correct
n must hays G whole set OF these
torture books, fsve being the magic
nnrnkos Ara sEsv mas ha bouua 4a