Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-12-28
PHOTOS FOR PHOTOS
SAKE, AIM OF WOMAN
M ARTISTIC VENTURE
,uss Marcena Beardsley Would
Abolish Tortuous Look for a
Real Soul Expression
in Pictures
eTupIo SOCIETY MECCA

sov Of the old-fashioned cabinet
Ine.nb Ine taken with a forced smile
pnsr instrument of torture pressing
hhu A. hack Of the head, Is over, accord
ino y, ~ Nuss Marcena Beardsley, of this
ing ~ has forsaken social gaiety to
cV ,.hat can be done in the way OF
sN,,s snow nortraiture with n camera. In
W. l.. MISS Beardsley declares that the
lnsssrn photograph Is vast improve
mo .., not only on crayons, but even on the
ms..s,ye msn. oil paintings, since the camera
e.ph a,.hos soul expression" far more
e.,sSty ea,sptt than even the best of artists.
.rfs absurd" says Miss Beardsley. ITO
- ,non photographs as mere things
oOS season. They should he so artistic
az good that they will he treasured
,,aa s.a miniatures from one generation to
'' M ,avf and It's because | believe that
". ~ js real art to be found in camera
n.rS that I have taken It UP as n career
~ real career, mind you, not fad.
.rver since I was little girl I have
,.sd nhotography and art, and 1t has
.,wsvs been my dream to have a studio
~. could take the sort of pictures
NJ somehow nobody else has taken.
naturally couldn't plunge right into
,wrb an enterprise, so 1 had to learn my
,rsde' like any other good artisan. and
noW at last am Ieduy 10 Hlhhe my
Jas or perhaps should say my ideals.
into concrete facts-on camera plates"
originality, Miss Beardsley says, is to
NJ her keynote, and she has struck 1t
.vsn IN the decoration &C her studio at
I'M and sansom, where she and Miss
Tyalyn Crosby and Clayton II. Overton
Nave Joined into a little company of
ephoto-crafters.'
Il knew" she said little regretfully.
,4hat II would cost small fortune to
make the studio into exactly the sort of
place I wanted, so I Just determined to
Do II myself and the result is q tri-
umph for the artist. With her own hands
,he tinted the walls a delicate gray, shad-
hr into rose, bought oddly shaped furni-
trre, which she tinted in turn to match
the walls, and then shaded the windows
With rose-colored curtains. She laughs
al the idea that she might turn interior
decorator, however, and declares that her
talents do not lie in that direction at all.
though the studio bellies her.
\ II Is her theory and those who are in
with her that the art of photography
has been commercialized, and that talk
ing pictures has been too much in
fuenoed by the haste to take as many
DOZENS as possible. no photo-crafters.
however, have nothing TO do with such
ccmmercal standards, their Idea is that
each picture shall be n unique portrait
and a work of art-in fact, they say
frankly they don't want to make money,
but pictures. Nevertheless, SO widely
has the news of Miss Beardsley's ven
iure been circulated that the little studio
BIDS fair to be society's mecca during
this season.
II like to take children and brides the
best" she admits, children because
there are so many possibilities in their
sweet faces, once they lose the self
consciousness born of facing n camera
under ordinary circumstances, and brides
because there is so much real expression
IN their eyes. 'dream-misted,' l think
some one has called 1t.
But then every age has its attrac-
tons and its possibilities to the artist,
and II is real art that we are trying for
and not mere likeness OF a passing mo-
nent''