Pondering
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: "Absorbed in her thoughts… her eyes see nothing of the realities about her. The curling smoke of the cigarette rises high… unnoticed… disregarded. The thrust of her chin… the sharp-chiselled [sic] lines of her features… the contracted brow leave no doubt as to the mood of this sitter. Our curiosity is aroused… one desires to penetrate the veil of utter abstraction to read her thoughts.
label: Description
content: Only in a dramatic study such as this, where the cooperation of the sitter is so completely objective can one hope to achieve perfect expression of the mood desired. The natural feminine loveliness of the sitter has been completely subordinated to the somber composition.
label: Description
content: Composition:
label: Description
content: Triangular. To build up on the entanglement in her mind the arms were carefully posed in order to strengthen the determination of her thought. She seems to pierce the smoke screen before her eyes which was put there to add to the mystery. Her crowded, but strongly supported body will, no doubt, help resist any possible consequence and the gaunt arrangement of the hair supports solidly the weight of her thoughts. Low key and heavy tone masses give strength to the composition.
label: Description
content: Technical Problems:
label: Description
content: Building up of light concentration on face, hand and cigarette, with secondary emphasis on entangled arms. The dress was too vivid and had to be reduced in the negative and flashed in printing. Shadow detail had to be retained by retouching on the negative. Also, slight emphasis on strands of hair was necessary to provide separation of masses.
label: Description
content: Data:
label: Description
content: Camera: 5x7 Eastman View
label: Description
content: Lens: Wollensak Velostigmat, 12 inches
label: Description
content: Stop: f.8
label: Description
content: Film: Agfa Supersensitive Plenachrome
label: Description
content: Exposure: 2 seconds, Mazda
label: Description
content: Print: Tuma Gas, direct"
label: Description
content: by Adolf Fassbender, 1937
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
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.004116.32
label: catalog number
content: 4116.32
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 1/8 in x 8 3/4 in; 28.2575 cm x 22.225 cm