| Show TOE THE CAMERAS PATRONS PATI lOiNS THE PUBLIC APT TO MAKE NEW photographers POPULAR A almost entirely Depond dependent ent on the fluctuation of public favor progress in the art of photographing the daguerreotype there seems to be no business so entirely dependent on the fluctuations 0 of popular favor as that of 0 the photographer A moments reflection ou the part of anybody who Is acquainted with the history of 0 photographers in new york for the tha past ten tell or fifteen years will show that their business is evidently not subject to the same conditions as is attendant ou on the business of other trades and professions photographers do not start in a small way build up gradually gradual li a paying business ness and eventually secure an estabi established asbed patronage which then continues with them without any special effort in ili the way of advertising the popular photographer jumps anto his popularity as a general thing inside of a single e year and replaces in public esteem older firms whose names are familiar to everybody both in private and public life the older men retire to the baek background ground and the artistic character of 0 their pictures is sneered at and comparatively new meni men are hailed as aa the apostles of modern photography to and their work described as tho the latest and the best the older men are almost forgotten anti anil their business falls away and they retire to side streets and modest shops no photographer of fifteen years ago is known as a leading photographer today oday the men who then secured the great men of tho the country the leading actresses on oil tho stage and the beauties of 0 the drawing room for their subjects are either out of oe business altogether or are doing a small trade with modest family people and charging extremely moderate prices I 1 fickleness FicKLE IS or OF PUBLIC FAVOR A photographer the other day said that he did not believe it was possible for any man or only any firm in the business to get to the top and stay there ile he had bad gotten to the top himself or once cc and he had bad made it a pol point nt to keep up with the times to use all the modern improvements in photographic materials and processes and had employed all his spare time devising new and attractive styles of photographs but bat notwithstanding all his efforts both in a business and artistic way helas he was not able to keep the leada leading position he be had attained and for no other reason in the world except that public favor fco far ws as his business is concerned is fickle beyond anything that he could describe ile he was gradually replaced by new arrivals in the field and saw liis his customers going to men whom he be believed bad none ot of b his 13 ability and whom he knew had but a quarter quarter of his experience lie ile explained this defection by saying that people who are in the habitor habit of having their photographs taken i at stated intervals ilter vals have bare the quality of human vanity in them developed to an unusual extent and are possessed ot of a continual desire to try new experiments and reach fresh results they do not expect perhaps that the latest photographer will make them out any more beautiful than the one whom they have just left but they expect that he will give them pictures which will give a new significance to their features speaking of keeping up with the alie times a photographer said the other day that there was nothing in modern photography which demonstrated its progress more absolutely than the improvements directed to reducing the time necessary for the securing of 0 the impression instantaneous photography is the growth of very recent times dozens of photographers in new york expose their plates and secure results within a second but this is by no na means instantaneous photography how great the pro progress gress in this matter has really been may be estimated from the tact that when daguerreotypes were first taken in this country forty odd years ago it was necessary that the plate should be exposed for fully twenty five minutes before the impression was deemed sufficient forthe picture of course in this minutes the subject had to sit perfectly still this was certainly as hard work its as any artists model does today la in fact no artists model is expected to pose for that time without rest six seconds is now regarded as a very long exposure new york mail and express |
