Sailors' Guide
date: label: date made
content: before 1937
name: label: maker
content: Fassbender, Adolf
notes: label: Description
content: From <i>Pictorial Artistry: The Dramatization of the Beautiful in Photography</i>
label: Description
content: "At the southern point of Nova Scotia where the Bay of Fundy begins stands this proud sentinel of the sea.
label: Description
content: The night when first I saw it was brilliantly clear and luminous. The radiance of a full moon danced on tiny wisps of clouds overhead. As I watched, the broad sweeping beams of the great light searched the sea in endless rotation, sending unfailing word to seafarers far beyond the horizon that here was the entrance to Yarmouth harbor. For I knew the shield that encircles the powerful light in the ever-turning top had openings of various sizes, which interrupt the beams at certain intervals. The periods of duration and interruption of the beams speak the language of the sea, identifying the light and its position to those who go down to the sea in ships.
label: Description
content: Composition:
label: Description
content: Monumental and pyramidal. The radiating light arrangement tends to draw the attention repeatedly back to the hidden source of light. The somewhat circular grouping of the moonlit clouds, prevents the attention from wandering out of the picture or away from the motif. Then, the tapering structure of the tower itself carries directly and forcefully to the motif, the source of light.
label: Description
content: Technical Approach:
label: Description
content: The sides of the lighthouse are striped red and white. In moonlight, a faint reproduction of this contrast in tones is visible. Since long exposure to register these in proper values would result in recording themotion of the light source, other means and conditions of taking the picture had to be worked out. Daylight exposure, with the sun behind the tower was the happy solution. By heavy reduction in the sky a night effect was created, followed by careful balancing of tones on groundglass substitute behind the negative. The light beams, so important to the drama of the composition, were introduced afterwards with chalk.
label: Description
content: Data:
label: Description
content: Camera: Linhof 9x12cm
label: Description
content: Lens: Schneider Angulon
label: Description
content: Stop: f.16
label: Description
content: Filter: Dark Yellow
label: Description
content: Exposure: 1/5 on tripod
label: Description
content: Film: Agfa Superpan
label: Description
content: Print: 14x17 Direct, on Tuma Gas"
label: Description
content: by Adolf Fassbender, 1937
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: Canada: Nova Scotian
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Photographic History
label: See more items in
content: Adolf Fassbender, Pictorial Artistry
label: See more items in
content: Photography
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PG.004116.40
label: catalog number
content: 4116.40
label: accession number
content: 146001
objectType: label: Object Name
content: photograph
label: Object Name
content: photogravure
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: image: 11 in x 8 3/8 in; 27.94 cm x 21.2725 cm