Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial. (Wilmington, Del.) 1878-1928, 1922-10-03
PHOTOGRAPHIC THE GREAT

|
washington. Oct. 3.---Whsn Justice
John Hessin Clarke resigned from the
supreme Court, the other day,ne dih
|. servlce not only 10 the man ap-
| ,santed TO succeed him but also,
thmrxh auite incidentally, 10 one or
more news photographers In Wash
inpton. A now Justice on the Supreme
Aench means a new photograph a the
, Supreme Court. and new photograph
, Of the Supreme Court lie worth many
hundreds Of dollars TO the photogra-
pher who secures II.
But pf1otoRraphing the Supreme
Court In all in the days business Tor
, the news photographer in the national
capital, although not many photo
. graphs are go valuable A photograph
OF the Supreme Court has historic
value which causes 1t to be purchas-
ed not only by newspapers and maya
zines, but also by lawyers. law bbraf-
!. los. "et al. TO use legal phraseology.
. Yet IL frequently happens that the
news photographer by some lucky
. shot secures picture that out-ds-
. tances the formal group photograph
: Of the Supreme Justices as a seller.
: This is usually n view q some great
man in an imposed human attitude
0 the we'll -known picture Of Mrs. Hard
ing fastening rose In her distin
-? guiehed husbands buttonhole wac an
}. examp1e---but II may be merely a still
j picture or come scenic phase.
e The man who first photographed the
0 reflection OF the Capitol's dome on th'
IS wet asphalt made himself "a small
| rF
n photograph Of the biossoming cherry
trees along the tidal basin in Wash
o ington have been sold? Tens Of thou
y sands Of them. Some day, when tbs
, landscaping Of the approach To- the
Is Lincoln Memorial Is done, sone1uckj
buttos -preeser will get that right
j. and there will be another sortun'
made.
= No other city in the world Is so thor
= oughly photographed, both as 70 Ia
"a distinguished inhabitants and visitor
and as to it's streets and buildings a.
,r Washington. The firm OF Harris
7 Ewing alone owns over half a mil
=, lion negatives Of Washington picture
of ncws value past and present. tn
firm Of Underwood & Underwood, al
=; though este blished IN Washingto
~ emily for a few years, also possesse
:, an enormous Ale. Besides these Their
- ara several other photographers who's
~ business Ia primarily a studio bushes
=, but who deal in news photographs Z
'i q greater or LEGS extent. II Is proba bl
NJ safe to estimate that there now exis
's the negatives Of a million news pf1cc
graphs Of Washington and It's peopI
- taken by professional photogra pher
r. And the oldest of these negatives
20 not much more than Is years old.
nd Rank with Reporters.
IL The business OF photozraphing n
Progress Of our Government n;
to grown to be az highly specialized {
H. that Of reporting II in print The pm
al tographer has taken his place alor
ia with the Washington correspondent
Ia News photographers have their re,
ed ular station at the White House. {,
instance, just as do the representativ,
.es of the press associations. This Is a
s. an ultra modern development. Infan
.ly born before the modern action new
ne photograph was understood at all a,
nd still minors. Yet today there ia scare
ly any phase Of historical progre.
anywhere in the world that is not b
yn ing completely preserved in plot
y graphs.
he To appreciate the truth Of this stat
-. ment, the reader has only to scare
bl- ms recoiiecLoh Tor mental image {
M say, President Benjamin Harrison
of some active pose. He has no 81,
act ..tn n' toi ne never Sd"
led 80" p.e'oie VI iiar son Except I
=, those who saw President Harrison
life the public today has no bett
means of knowing what he real
looked like than il has of KNOWN
what julius Cesar looked like. Il n
some formal portraits and that is q
The same is substantially true
Presidents Cleveland and McKinIe
although motion pictures had been
vented by Mckinleys time, and Z
movie camera was turned upon hi
H. But the photographing of news,
we know IL. began during Roosevelt
administration, when Barney Gin
dinst. Washington photographer, Il
ported from Germany a camera wi
shutter so rapid that il would ST
upon the Photographic plate the swi
est kinds of action. No man was me
receptive TO new ideas than Roo.
welt, and when Clinedinst told Roo:
welt ABOUT the new camera the Pre-
dent invited the photographer 10 |,
the new instrument by taking sol
snapshots of T. r. on horseback. T
famous photograph Of Roosev
vaulting a five-bar fence on a hoi
was the result of that first appoil
) ment-a photograph that is said
have made Clinedinst over $50. 900.
was the forerunner OF the mode
action. picture of public men.
Roosevelt was the best OF all Pre-
Dental subjects for the camera.
was a man OF striking actions, a
-, he was that most excellent of
posers, the man who can be ute
himself in front of the cameras e
3 But T. R. had something more:
s could sit in a studio and register
portrait that fairly glowed with
Y own personality. Other public n
o can get this result occasionally, q
). then they secure what they cher
i as their best pictures; but RooseN
v had the facility all the time.
e 1t was legendary the number
{ times President Roosevelt was pho
L graphed, but the cameras have eli
e ed even more industriously in the
v cintty of his successors. That is
~ calySa of the increa sing pi,hlic