photographerinthepicture

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Some kind of exposure system in hand ?

Gary Weaver : He's holding the actual tintype print. The tintype print is a "direct positive on a thin sheet of metal coated with a dark lacquer or enamel and used as the support for the photographic emulsion." (See Wikipedia.) Inside the camera, there was a small drawer that held several unexposed sheets. Using a long black silk sock in the back of the camera, the photographer would reach into the drawer, pull out a single sheet and position it to make the picture. Once exposed, he reaches in again and slides the sheet into a monobath that's held in a metal can made into the back underside of the camera. Look closely and you can see it hanging from the back of the camera here, although most of it is obscured from view. He would wait the appropriate time and then rotate the container so that the sheet could be retrieved through a small trap door it the tanks top at the back of the camera. A simple wash with water (see his bucket?) removed any remaining chemistry and brought out the image. Here, he appears to be holding it to dry. Normally it was then placed in a cardboard frame for the customer. Per this ad for one of the Daydark cameras (historiccamera.com/cgi-bin/librarium2/pm.cgi?action=app_d...;) you could make 500% markup and they had reports of people earning $10 to $12 a DAY! (In 1910...) [grin]

Fascinating. What a great image of a photo maker!

One can easily duplicate the tintype look in Photoshop. What fascinates me is what the image structure is saying – near center, the camera technology being examined/ discussed; far center, the large white guy with his back to the activity.

Robert W Peabody III : Sorry, but you really can't 'duplicate' the look of a real tintype in Photoshop. And that hits on part of your other observation. People were fascinated with the "instant" image from the photographer. Because the emulsion was on top of the metal sheet, I could fully see that as he's drying it, he's also tilting it in the light and the gentleman over his shoulder is studying the almost "3D" quality that the surface of a tintype has. And as far as the guy with his back to the group--he's just walking away (see the position of his legs). I wouldn't read anything more about him in the photo other than he was part of the background. Remember--these are street photographers from the 1910's-1930's. Downtown was the like the mall today and you'd have lots of people around at any given time. And these photographers were common--sometime too much so. In the town where I grew up--Chattanooga, Tennessee--it got to be such a problem with so many street photographers getting pushy to ply their trade downtown that the city made it illegal to TAKE a photo on Market Street (the main road thru town). I'm not sure if it's still on the books today, but as late as the 1980's it was still a "blue law" on the books. Obviously the city fathers of the early 20th century never envisioned smartphones with their cameras of the 21st century... [grin]

Emotive portrait of a probably singer?

See www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/33657003223/

Roxie Hart in her final act of desperation.