Self portrait fashion spoof
This photo started the series. It is a spoof of fashion photos. But, if anyone doubts the Messraster focusing device, please note that the label of the scarf is clearly readable....at least in the original uncompressed scan, and is really pretty clear even here. That was unheard of in those days, when everything in fashion photography that needed to be clear or readable was enlarged, retouched by painting in the details by hand, then re-photographed for publishing. No one ever expected a photograph to be sharp enough for commercial use without vast amounts of retouching. My photographs changed that. They were the first ever that were dependably sharp when necessary and could be used commercially without retouching. Unfortunately, when I left Berlin and soon went off to other things than photography, the Messraster inventor, Joseph Dahl, died and nothing more came of the invention until it was brought out in revised, not yet perfected, auto-exposure form, which all through-the-lens auto focusing devices are.
© 2006 Mark B. Anstendig. All rights reserved.
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