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Show I I New Field of Work Open ? I To Women Who Can Pose r .. i -t- ITT4-r-rT Detroit Free Press. 7 OXB but the blind needs telling' that this i an age of. pictorial I advertising. There are admirers of high art "who lament tho fa.ll, and on the other hand there arc dozene of women In this city who rejoice over it. Advertising1 photographers aro not sorry for it either. f Commercial photography, aH it is I lied, the making of photographs to I he us2d for" advertising purposes, has arrived at the dignity of a business by I Ifelf In New York. Almost all the plc- lures are taken from 1lfo and the wo- 1 fn who pose for them are as well ; uld, sometimes better paid, than the 1 painters' models, and the .work Is not I nearly so hard, j This explains why (he same faces ilg- tire so "often In the illustrations of wo- I men's hats and clothes which appear In J the newspapers, Irt marines and In I '.tore catalogues, 6ays a writer in the New York Sun. "None of our employees has ever been, photographed for advertising purposes, Ii I think, and the faces of very few have appeared in the sketches made for our .ttaloguc," said the woman manager of a department store. "For one thing, there arc surprisingly ! feu who are really suitable in appear- ance. I remember a young Scotch girl, though, who came here to work about a j car ago. She was timid, modest, a dovdy as to style, but she had a lovely face. Before long- the way that girl smartened up was wonderful. I discov-crad discov-crad that she had a really beautiful figure, fig-ure, and she was put to trying on gowns. ' "I never saw anyone more delighted. One day she was sketched in an imported im-ported costume, and after that evory spare ir.omeut she could get was spent In front of a mirror., Her vanity grew b thf yard. T knew- she would not be with us very long. Sure enough, sho went to a Fifth avenue dressmaker ttho.c costumes are often pictured in the newspapers, as a model, and now her face is seen everywhere. She likes It "U'hat is more, she gets good pay. "Thoro was another young girl who vas employed here to sew buttons on shoos. She was a pretty little thing, and as she came in contact with customers cus-tomers in the shoe department they bgan to praise her looks and pet her. In three months that girl had changed so muHi that the shoe department could not hold her. She got a place in n wholesale millinery house to try on hats and pose for Illustration. From I there she went on the stage as a chorus girl She still poses for photographers. In all probability a few years ago, before be-fore pictorial advertising and Illustrated fashlo articles were ajl the rage, those glrK or girls like them, would have .tnyed In the department stores. Now there Is another avenue open for them, and I'm glad of it "A prosperous looking j'oung woman with -whom I am slightly acquainted surprised me very much by saying thiH there was a certain bit of fence in this town she just loved because once It nporled an Illustrated advertisement of a stocking supporter. "Why?" I asked. "Deruise that advertisement brought me a couple of dollars at a time when I didn't have a cent In my purse or know v. here iny next meal was to come from," she told me. Then she told the story. " 'I had been out of Work,' she said, brn laid off for six weeks because businers was dull, and although I had the promise of being taken on again in two or three weeks, how on earth I was to manage meanwhile without any money I did not know. " 'J have a good figure, and in desperation des-peration I went to several artists and offered myself for a model. But at overy studio It was the same story they had all the models they wanted. Vlmost In despair I went haphazard to a photographer and told him I was looking for work. He ran his eye over me critically and then asked point blank: 'Have you a well-Bhaped leg?' " 'I told him I thought I had. " ' 'Well,' he said, 'a model has disappointed disap-pointed me and as I have promised some pictures for which she was to pose to n advertiser tomorrow without fall, I 1m In a dltllculty. I can't wait for her, nor take time to send for any one else. If you will pose for me now I will Dav WM " "Before I could really think what to ?ay he called a woman clerk who hur- 1 n led me off to. a dressing-room and fixed me up In silk stockings and the latest thing in a garter, and the next minute L wus posing before a camera. It was all over in half an hour, and I went out lutchlng a two-dollar bill and thinking joyfully of something to eat. Since then I have posed for him often.' " Although there arc few photographers j in the town, even the highest priced, .vho do not from time to time make plc-lures plc-lures for advertising -purposes, a few npeclallsta, it seems,. control most of the business. "No," said one, in answer to a quos-lion, quos-lion, "very few advertisers make their own photographs. You see so much de-ponds de-ponds on the pone and also on the way 'he pictures are worked up that it is cheaper for them to have us do their mM work than for them to keep two or mM throe artists and bother about getting j models. Wo supply everything but the mM garment or the articles to be advertised, j ' For example. A maker of optical mM goods came in here a few weeks ago KV Lh a small instrument ho called a dropper. It was meant for dropping MM lirinlds into the eye and for personal MM use, and he wanted a picture which would show a pretty woman In the act MM of using it. Of course, he got what he WM wanted. I sent for a model who has WM very full, large, round eyes and posd her in a graceful attitude, head raised holding the dropper aloft, a drop just mM entering the corner of her left eye. No j ot course no liquid went near her eye' when she posed, else she would have v Inked or dodged. We put the drop in Wm afterward. But the thing was a great j ruccess. "Where do we get the models'' We Wm iTon't Get them. They comb to us and mM 'jave their names and addresses. When need one I send for her. No one is WM ver paid less than Jl for posing, but here is no set price. The pay depends 1 good deal on the Importance of the 'ad' and the time spent In posing, j "Corset models get the best. In fact, j a woman who can pose for a corset nd- mM vertlsement can make her own terms. almost. The figure seen In a big corset display advertisement near Twenty-mM Twenty-mM third street lately was posed here, ahd the young woman got $10 for less than WM one hour's work, and a handsome corset MM thrown In. She- made her bargain with mM the manufacturer, not with me. She j was a finely developed woman, with an WM exceedingly pretty face, but. of course, WM her waist I3 not as small as it appears WM In the cut. Our rctbucher trimmed it in a good bit after the- nejratlvo waB made." "What sort of women are thoBe models' mod-els' "Well, you would be- surprised to seo somo of them ladicx bom and bitd they are. Then many nrc chorus girls or. beginners in the theater who want to eke out their salaries. As a rule they make the best models, for they are easier to pose than the others. "One of the beat I have had, though, Is a young lady of good family, who became estranged from, her people, so she said, because of a. difference of opinion opin-ion about a man whom her mother wanted her to marry. The girl was of age, so Bhe left home, moved her trunk to a boardlng-houflo and started out to be independent. A writer for Western papers brought her in one day to Illustrate Illus-trate a hnirdrcsslng article, and I posed her In eight different positions with hor hands to her head. Sho had beautiful, beauti-ful, fluffy hair, which looked protty any way she twisted It, and she told me afterward that the story was written to explain her poses rather than the poses to Illustrate the story. "Another time I posed her In a lot of exercises to illustrate a health article, and from time to time I employed her for different advcrtlBcments. Appar- pnt.lv Rill hurl llrt rthtvtlnno whntniwp (n tho work, and yet she had never earned any money before. She said that none of her friends suspected it was her plc-turo plc-turo they saw so often in the papers, although occasionally some one would comment on the likeness. Sho has stopped the work now, I understand, and has gone hack to her relatives "A young married woman came in the other day and gave me an address not her own address, however, for she doeo not want her husband to know what she Is up to. He is employed In a storo, I learned, and is unable to give her much spending money. " 'I want more pin money,' was tho way she put it. "Sho Is a tall, very dark brunctto with claBsIcal features and satin-smooth hair, quite an uncommon type, and I was really glad to get her. I am afraid, though, there is trouble in store for her when her husband finds out what she Is doing, and of course he will find it out. "One of my prettiest models is a young widow who supports herself entirely en-tirely by posing for advertisements. Her specialty is showing off dress waiste. She would never do for a painter's model, her figure is too faulty; but alio had a remarkably stylish air about her, and tho most commonplace shirt waist after she slips it on looks stunning. "I find, though, that the great major-Sty major-Sty of the advertising models are chorus singers or actresses with small parts and correspondingly small pay." |
