Balder Ex-Libris

Author : Le Bon Gustave
Title : On the Applications of Photography to Anthropology with Respect to the Photographs Taken of the Fuegians Housed at the Jardin d'Acclimatation
Year : 1881

Link download : Le_Bon_Gustave_-_On_the_Applications_of_Photography_to_Anthropology.zip

Messieurs, I have the honor of offering to the Society copies of several photographs of the Fuegians currently housed here in Paris at the Jardin d’Acclimatation; these pictures were taken with the assistance of my friend, Monsieur Jeanmaire. The subjects are reproduced both in profile and in full face, and attached to each picture is a scale consisting of a strip of paper 1 decimeter in length, which permits one to reconstitute the dimensions of all parts of the body and to execute by consequence on these photographs the same measurements that one is able to carry out upon the living. Because of the impossibility of getting these individuals to remain absolutely still, their reproduction by the old methods of photography would have been extremely laborious. In fact, a professional photographer who preceded us was obliged to return for five consecutive days, recommencing his operations non-stop for six hours each day. By using a dry emulsion of gelatino-silver bromide, which the latest method of photography calls for, we were able to operate in an instantaneous manner, and therefore did not have to preoccupy ourselves with trying to keep the subjects still. Also, our savages have been caught in the most diverse, but at the same time the most natural, poses. Two infants, of whom one sees only their heads emerging from the blanket wrappings where they are taking refuge, have a very curious physiognomic expression. One of them, who I was annoying a few moments before, kept on crying. From an aesthetic point of view, these photographs are perhaps not as good as those of the Nubians that I took last year. But, from the photographic point of view, their clearness is complete. We were able to enlarge them considerably, and I expect to show you in an upcoming meeting a print possessing very large dimensions. ...