The sun., 1915-02-21
In the Mosque of Omar.
Adventures of the Cinematograph Man
While Gathering Photos in the
Land Where Christ Was Born

graph Of the "old road between
i Jerusalem and Bethlehem" or
The Garden of Gethsemane" and
quite another to snap n little girl in
a field Of grain where she is harvest
ing because she reminds the senti-
mental camera man of Ruth.
1t is one thing to give a camel man
half a dollar to strike a pose beside
his animal and it is different when
the conscientious photographer desires
to show real life" rather than
'artistic poses: when he would feel
that he had done a good days work
If he happened to catch a desert man
in prayer before mis- camel. his face
turned toward Mecca. This and all
the other poses of praying men, girls
with water jars on their heads, dom
keys, goats or such things as n
"Bedouin Before the Alahaster
Mosque" seems To have been snapped
soon after the camera was invented
ard distributed 10 all the world.
OF all places on earth that have
been overdone by photographers, just
a little overexploited by publishers.
Palestine seems to take the prize.
For example, one large American firm
has kept a photographer in the Holy
Land for many years. He has no
particular assignment, but quite at
his own will wanders over the hills OF
Galilee. into the Judean wilderness. or
further north to the apricot orchards
OF Damascus. swapping whatever
seems TO be OF interest AT the END
of a week OF tramping he stays at
home for a week and develops his
plates, sending another batch of Holy
Land pictures" into the world. Ana
he is but one photographer.
During his wanderings in Palestine
I came across one German and one
Frencnman who were similarly en-
ployed. met one Syrian photog-
rapher who makes speciality or
photographing the Jordan River with
the fiocks of tourists who come to it's
banks--and this photographer quite
incidentally has made a fortune from
this work and now turns over large
part Of what might be called field
work" to younger assistants. Doubt
less there are many others whose
paths I did not happen to cross, for
the labor OF their hands bears testi-
mony against them in magazines
books and the shop windows OF the
world.
So at first it seemed rather hope
less task that f.. NJ. Newman, the
American travel lecturer. had set
for himself when we started through
Palestine, he declaring that he must
find something different" in the varied
life OF the country. He had pene-
,rated to almost all of the distant
countries Of the world for the purpose
of obtaining photographs and human
interest material for his audiences IN
America.
He had held the camera before him
in the Arctic seas, in the vast interior
Of Australia, as far as rivers penetrate
into China, into Tibet. and in the foot
steps Of Roosevelt in Africa. Fol
many years he had been tramping the
earth's surface in this quest, but he
had studiously avoided Palestine. The
Holy Land seemed impossible FOR MS
purposes Like the Russian dancers
it had been photographed upright, OF
its head, awake, asleep-almost inside
and outside. Perhaps little remained
for the professional camera artist
Something different" has been the
motto from the start, as the raisor
d'etre for giving travel lectures at all
and he retained the same motto, as &
sound business principle, when he de
cided to leave his very comfortable
dahabeah "Seti" on the Nile and boarC
he very uncomfortable Russian steam
er, whose first port of call was Jana
that little city which looks very white
from a distance at sea, but very un
white when viewed from its mould,
and filthy streets-Jaffa, the port from
which Jonah sailed on his historical
cruise that presumably ended in tn
belly of a whale.
With characteristic optimism tn
thought had come to him that perha p
after all ne might be able to dlscOve
little human interest episodes in tn
lives of the people that had been over
looked by other photographers. Afte
all, he had the cinematograph. Other
of whom he heard in the Holy Ian
brought their own star actors and mad
careful arrangements for lay figure
to give the necessary "color" and au
thcnticIty to films, from such centre
OF civilization as Jerusalem and Da
mascus. We had not Ventured IA
from Jana before We found, for ir
stance, an Italian company which wa
augmented by a mob" of Syrians, WI
drew salary OF about 10 cents a da
endeavSring to reenact many of II
incidents in the life Of Christ ION Il