THE NUDE IN STEREOGRAPHY 165gown. This may be stepins and brassiere, or it may be a slip or
whatever she happens to use. Here you have the secondary foun-
dation upon which the dress rests. The curve of the lower spine
is gone. The recurve beneath the buttocks is concealed, The femi-
nine contours have been transformed into a set of curious curves
ending in almost geometrically flat planes. Without your prior
anatomical knowledge you would have no conception of the true
framework beneath.
The characteristic shape of breasts and hips disappears. Both
are compressed into shapelessness. By contrast the waist seems to
bulge. The whole figure becomes amorphous.
Finally the outer gown is applied. Now what have you? The
foundation used has ruined the figure, and now the gown can only
decorate the shapeless figure beneath. So the gown itself is decor-
ated and made attractive. The natural beauty of the feminine
figure is replaced by an example of the dressmaker’s art, and what
we admire is not the disguised figure but the dress!
But no matter. You now have a draped figure with which to
work and with which to do your best.
Now I want you to imagine two stereographers, each with his
own draped model, both trying the same pose. A has been through
the training with the nude, B has never worked with a nude
model.
B will be worried. He will say, “Well, I don’t know just what
it is, but you don’t look right. Try walking away and coming back
to the pose.” The model does so, and there is no improvement.
B suggests changed hand positions, turning the body, bending
forward and bending back until the poor model has become as
stiff as a wooden figure.
A looks at his model and says, “Just a bit more weight on the
right leg. Drop the right pelvis line a quarter inch, rotate the left
thigh a hair.” He studies it a moment. “Center of gravity back
an inch and drop the right shoulder just a bit.” He looks again,
makes the exposure and gets just what he wants.
B works all day and gets nothing because he has not the slightest
familiarity with the object of which he is making photographs, he
directs in terms of dress instead of terms of bones and muscles!
Even the actual folds of drapery usually respond to a good bone
position, more easily than otherwise, at any rate. So if you know