Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-02-09
MEN SHY OF CAMERA,
PHOTOGRAPH SAY
Studio Classed With Dental Parlor
in Minds Of Most of Stern
Sex

New York. Jan. Photographer
are lust closing a busy season. 1t was
not So busy as last year, but of a differ
rnt type of trade Last year, they say,
the business was practically all soldier
hlsin, SIS s''--with men either IN or out oil
service uniform and quite often both.
This wear il has got back to n civilian
basis or at least To the place where
YOU can scarcely tell the former s,ldie
from the man who had a reason for not
going al all
according - the photographers II
rrouirrs a holiday season or a world war
or something like that to induce the
average mortal 10 poss for camera III
"A gallery. To men. they say il Is a great
deal like having their hair cut or gong
a. dentist not - painful. perhaps, but
quite as undigniiicd and disconcertingr
Men go about Il in different ways.
Some oi them sneak off 10 out-oi-thc-
WAY galleries where they are sure they
ar not known or elsc take the whole
family along and make festival ot the
occasion IN order 90 disguise their em-
harraSSment They cannot go about the
matter normally or sat naturally IN front
at the camera. And yet. the photograph
rrs say. they wonder why the resulting
product makes them either appear like
n perfect stranger or Brother Willie
nj n II ST.
VIII n one can recall or hear about the
horrors Of portrait photography IN its
infsncy one must wonder why the or
dinary mortal is not willing 60 submit to
the ordeal almost every day.
IL IL no longer necessary To see the
pretty birdie or have a series of iron
clamps holding one IN rigid posture.
Neither is IL necessary for the bridegroom
to SIT stiffly in a plush chair while his
hllshing BRIDE stands at his side. Gone
are the days Of such pictures tho days
when the man wore his hat and the
woman held bouquet OF lilies of the
valley.
Neither do We have any longer the
portraits of children taken Just at about
the moment they were expiring OF terror
caused by the combination OF the man
capring about before them, the distract
cd mother on one side and the frivolous
aunt on the other.
NOWADAYS there is no torture. In .
good gallery one merely sits IN 3 char
and chsts for a time with occasional
questions or directions about a pose,
and gust about the time the subject gets
bis muscles all set and his face screwed
INTO a hOpt NItU Nhc bNNti otth ti
iand or sea he is told to call Thursday
and see your proofs or something OF
that sort Certainly il IS entirely differ
cnt than the old way.
The@c modern photographers are even
inclined 20 be impudent at times. They
60 as far as 10 tell one what clothes one
should wear IL Is true they are not so
particular rs % texture as they are %
color but IL seems that the old idea OF
wearing ones best somewhat regard
less has gone out Of fashion. In the case
of ladies who have grown plump enough
10 be noticeable they advise black in
stead Of white without any regard as to
whether the white waist cost S2S and the
black only SlaS In eases Of this sort
the matter is put bluntly TO the subject,
What arc YOU having photographed
your waist or your embonpoInt? Some
times they use even palmer speech.
Men. they say arc notoriously difficult
a. photograph II is bccsuSesmcn them
selves say they can never get a photo
graph that looks like them. Photog
raphers say IL : because men are too self
conscious and 20 about the whole business
with sort of hangdog expression or
their faces As though they expected som'
friend 20 burst in with a loud lia hai
IL almost any minute.