Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-08-02


IL There are many places we may
go with the worlds newest AIT
Il Il and yet 1t seems flnd one Of
them Is fresh territory with
the camera. arrive at this by de-
duction. If Winfield SheehAr, one Of
the most astute men in the talking
picture profession, brings one Of the
worlds most famous photographers to
Hollywood and puts him to work in
the studio painting the Fox lilies, so to
speak, there must be untouched fields
so far as photography ID concerned.
Although Hollywood lives by the
camera, the four or five great names
of camera craft are not to be found
here. Steichen, Steiglitz, Phyffe, DR..
Arnold Genthe-all Of them artists by
profession before they turned to the
camera lens as q more intriguing form
of art to play with-are associated
with cities other than the gelatin
center. OF these Winfield Sheehan
chose Hal Phyffe of New York to con-
vince the world Of the superlative
atty interest Of his stars. Perhaps
the last phrase Is the most significant
for Phyffe believes beauty easy to
capture, but personality and character
traits more important by far and far
more difficult to render tangible.
Hal Phyffe abandoned a successful
career as an artist in pastel and oils
to experiment with the camera. Those
experiments have placed him in the
front rank of Photographic genius, and
there is singularly short list OF these
artists; strange as that may seem. We
can tally the successful in other arts
ad inflnitum; we can count the famous
novelists until we are weary, without
scratching the surface; we can begin
to recount the famous singers and mu-
sicians of the earth-an endless list;
then come down to the knights Of the
camera. A small group. these men who
have found playing with actually more
engrossing than toying with the ro-
mantle and imaginative.
Perhaps photography-perfect pho
tography-is the acid test Of art. Dur.
ing the coming months, pictures OF
Janet Gaynor, Of Charles. Farrell. OF
ELISA Landi. OF Warner Baxter. will
be displayed with-"Look at Janet-see
tines-get that personality--that vi
tality-that magnetism I'm pre-
supposing little Fox conversation here,
for it will be Phyffe photography OF
Janet Gaynor and, as such, We will
reveal depths the public has perhaps
never guessed. Yet If Hollywood,
city of carneras-had lived true to
the thing which governed us, the
camera-we would not have to go OUT
side the professional colony for camera
impressions of the cinema famous. The
answer Is that Hollywood stands guilty
of not understanding all there is to
be understood about the instrument by
which she lives-the camera lens.
We catch pretty faces in our pictures.
We make them far more unbelievably
pretty than nature or fate made them.
We light them fatty. Monotonously.
We tell the same story. With the fair
Of one who has q new tale to tell: this
is to our credit for we are apparently
sold to the idea-the only healthy way
to proceed.
Then, when we have apparently
touched our zenith of technique. we
reveal that we are still in the nsdir of
accomplishment by bringing in an
artist of the camera who does new and
wonderful things with the great Holly
wood machine.
A great director is man who writes
a story In gelatin instead of words
a man who writes tale unforgettably
in the medium which is most telling in
the long run-the visual medium The
things we read become dim and legend
airy ofttimes: the things We see and
the things We live, last. A great pho
tographer is man who tells story
in an instant-a fleeting fraction of
second; an artist who captures the
full gamut of emotion covered by the
director-or the novelist, or the story
teller-in almost one-millionth of the
time given the others for their art.
Hal Phyffe has a colorful BACKGROUND,
far more crowded with incident and
glamour than the directors of Holly
wood. The same perhaps is true of the
other great photographers of the earth.
This extraordinary equipment enables
them to assimilate in a few moments
the things it takes most of us years to
absorb.
Born at Nice he has led a wandering
existence which has carried him into
most of the far corners OF the earth
Into the Aviation Corps during the
World War. There he acquired his love
for photography. So strong did this
become that he abandoned the career
he had built up through the years, a
brilliant career in pastels, sketching
the beauties Of the earth-the Zieg-
field Follies girls, the Earl Carroll beau
ties, the lovely women Of all ranks Of
life-to experiment with the hazardous
and treacherous art of the camera lens.
Phyffe made his debut as an artist
of camera at Palm Beach in 1925. That
jaunt, during which he photographed
the outstanding names of the colony
there, was the beginning of the New
York studio Of today. There the famous
of the earth knock hesitatingly on the
door. A Phyffe appointment is some
thing to achieve. He Is the man who
has made the successful pictures of
Rudy Vallee. An accomplishment, II
you ask me. for the crooner's face is
not one to conjure with in my opinion.
But over 100000 Phyffe photographs of