146 THREE-DIMENSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY
The disinterested person will very probably find the stereo
abstraction more attractive than the painted one. Perhaps it is
because the stereographer has the aid of nature to preserve pro-
portions while form disappears as such, perhaps it is the subtlety
of tone, color and contour gradation in which photography (plus
stereo) is unexcelled, but whatever the reason, the effect is an
utter sublimation of realism into pure impression.
There is another type of abstraction which has been given a
great deal of attention. Perhaps many of you recall the Picasso
story in Life, telling of the efforts of the artist to paint pictures
with light, that is by waving a flashlight around before the camera.
If so you may be surprised to know that for months before this
article appeared stereographers were playing with just such ‘‘llgat
pictures.” But they were all in three dimensions and in multi-
color! Dahl produced some excellent examples early in the game,
and many have followed. We saw one in which a fiery female
figure stood life size in a dimly seen garden, with multi-colored
veils streaming behind her, all “painted” with flashlights and col-
ored filters.
Line was abandoned as the sole medium early in this move-
ment, now the light source varies from a pinhole to a beam four
or five inches wide, so that splashes and waterfalls of fire may be
produced.
This may not be art, but it is highly amusing. One amateur
said he had to quit it because he used up twenty magazines of
color film in one week playing with what he called “pyrographs”
or fire pictures, not an inappropriate name.
FANTASTIC REALISM.-DireCtly opposed to this non-realism are
the super-realistic stereograms made with electronic flash, and
those made with stroboscopic lights (rapid succession of exposures
upon one film). Not only do we see leaping figures frozen in mid-
air and such subjects which are more or less familiar to us, but
we have a group of such subjects which reveal exquisite beauties
never before seen by man.
Perhaps the most outstanding work of this kind is done by the
Kents. The subject in general, birds; the one specific stereogram
in mind at present, a cardinal (red bird), in the air, braking de-
scent preparatory to alighting, but a good two feet away from the
landing place. The slide is perfect. Every feather visible, the scales