Fishermen's Menace
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: "Fog! The dismal, misty, almost impenetrable blanket that sailors fear, enveloped everything on my first visit to Peggy’s Cove. For here on the east coast of Nova Scotia the fog seems “thick as pea soup”.
label: Description
content: Monotonously the fog-horns sounded their mournful warning blasts. Voices seemed unreal… hushed… now near… now distant… as the water lapped and splashed nearby. As I had not seen the village in clear weather, I could only guess at best as to the relation of things half seen about me. My straining eyes could not discern the ghostly figures of the fishermen as they busied themselves disposing of the day’s meagre catch on a nearby wharf. Yet the vague forms… the water… and the fog all seemed to challenge me, saying… “Here is a picture…” I must take it.
label: Description
content: Composition:
label: Description
content: The fascination of the subject matter is the near invisibility of what we see. It is almost nothing, but the eye continues to search for something more. The rare composition is held together by the irregular posts and piers on both sides. The nearby posts lend strength and subtle contrast to the picture, the darker rendition of the tones defining the planes of the composition. This is a natural situation, for the camera lens like the human eye had less haze obstruction to penetrate.
label: Description
content: Technical Approach:
label: Description
content: Exact exposure was essential. Development had to be on the thin side to avoid losing the delicate tones in printing. Fog has a visible texture, but seldom in a photograph. Therefore, the feeling of fog had to be introduced by printing the image through a paper screen. The print is essentially high key throughout, due to the necessarily limited range of tones required to achieve the desired effect of the saturating monotone that fog creates.
label: Description
content: Data:
label: Description
content: Camera: Linhof 9x12cm
label: Description
content: Lens: Zeiss Tessar 15cm
label: Description
content: Stop: f.16
label: Description
content: Exposure: 1/10 with tripod
label: Description
content: Film: Agfa Super Plenachrome
label: Description
content: Print: 14x17 Direct enlarging
label: Description
content: Paper: Tuma Gas, MQ Developer"
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.004116.21
label: catalog number
content: 4116.21
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: 7 1/2 in x 10 3/8 in; 19.05 cm x 26.3525 cm