Three-Dimensional Photography - Principles of Stereoscopy

144 THREE-DIMENSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY
by suspended particles such as smoke or powder, if it is to be
used as light it must not be given the pictorial weight of a solid.
Smoke, soap bubbles, tenuous veils, in short all objects whose
physical mass is subtle are reproduced in stereo without taking
on the appearance of being carved from cardboard as in planar
work. These accessories to the figure have been used to good ad-
vantage, and occasionally as primary subjects rather than as ac-
cessories. Dunnigan has done excellent work in this field.
Stereo nudes are plentiful, good stereo nudes among the rarest
of all stereograms. Among those whose work has come to our at-
tention, we admire that of Hilborn. His nudes are living models,
in unconsciously natural poses of everyday life. They are for the
most part girls of natural grace who are not posed in stiff, formal,
ridiculous poses, but who are living life naturally and easily,
without clothing. The whole spirit of most of the Hilborn studies
is that the models are simply not conscious that such a thing as
clothes exists, and that there is nothing at all strange or un-
familiar with the condition of nudity.
But we cannot catalog every possible subject for the stereo pic-
torialist. We must proceed to generalizations if this chapter is
to be kept within reasonable limits of space.
MODERN TREATMENT.-The planar pictorialist argues that he
is free from the bonds of realism, that he can embrace the whole
universe of impressionism. That might evoke a number of state-
ments which perhaps should be left unwritten. The writer has
a deep admiration for some of the truly great impressionistic
painters, but he has never yet seen a photograph presumably made
after the impressionistic, modernistic or surrealistic schools which
appeared to be more than a meaningless conglomeration! Perhaps
the physical limitations of the medium prevent such a purely
spiritual expression: perhaps the limitations lay with the photog-
raphers. At any rate the planar photographer has a real problem
before he can bend the characteristics of the planar photograph
to a genuinely impressionistic result-but the stereographer has
no such limitation. His medium presents him with the possibility
of retaining all the subtle elements of realism, all of the in-
imitable coloring of nature combined with a presentation which
is more unreal, more fantastic and at the same time more har-
monious than even the manual artists have achieved! Truly,