HUMAN EMOTION RECORDED BY 

 PHOTOGRAPHY 



By Ralph A. Grav 



es 



WHEN Shakespeare observed 

 that "there's no art to find the 

 mind's construction in the face," 

 he had reference to that mind which 

 employs artifice to conceal its motives 

 and its machinations. In the accompany- 

 ing studies in expression, however, the 

 camera has been employed to record the 

 facial play and byplay of those who have 

 naught of their emotions to withhold 

 from the world. Here the lens of the 

 photographer has caught and preserved 

 the fleeting joyous thought, the moment 

 of tranquil reverie, the sorrow without 

 shame, the eternity of oppressive sus- 

 pense, the exuberant mirth of the care- 

 free, the rollicking gayety of childhood, 

 the eager earnestness of youth. All these 

 moods and fancies the faces of normal 

 men, women, and children reflect with 

 unfailing faithfulness. Here one finds 

 recorded in pictures the "geography of 

 the human heart" — its cares, its longings, 

 its foibles, and its aspirations. 



It needs not the experience of a deep 

 student of human nature to read in the 

 face of the immigrant mother (Plate I) 

 her story of struggle, of pain, and of sor- 

 row in the Old Country. But, happily. 

 in her pensive smile there is the sugges- 

 tion of a brighter day to come in the 

 hope of realized ambitions for her chil- 

 dren, who are to be given an unhampered 

 start in the New World ; and it requires 

 no wild stretch of the imagination to read 

 on this mother's lips an echo of the words 

 of a famous Roman matron, "These are 

 my jewels." 



The laughter of children is a universal 

 language, as readily understood in Swe- 

 den (see Plate II) as on the lips of our 

 own kith and kin in America (see Plate 

 VI). 



"The light of love and fainting faith" 

 contend for supremacy in the faces of 

 those mothers who stand and silently 

 await the glimpse of loved ones immured 

 behind hospital walls (Plate III). 



It can never be said of the mother, 



sister, or wife who watched the solemn 

 pageantry of military funerals during the 

 World War that she was one of those 

 who "never sees the stars shine through 

 her cypress-trees" ; for we see reflected 

 in the face of each one so bereft that 

 she is soothed and sustained by that con- 

 solation which crowns her grief, the con- 

 sciousness of a loved one's noble sacrifice 

 (Plate IV). 



As we gaze upon the sweet content of 

 the two faces on Plate V, we cannot but 

 feel that the poet had in mind such as 

 these when he wrote : 



"And as the evening twilight fades away. 

 The sky is filled with stars invisible by day." 



The venerable patriarch of Plate VII 

 holds the even tenor of his way "through 

 the sequester'd vale of rural life." 



He who smiles first fights best would 

 be a true paraphrase of a familiar say- 

 ing, if facial expression is an index of 

 stamina. And who can deny that it is, 

 after studying the light which dances in 

 the eyes of the men in khaki shown on 

 Plate X ? 



A wise student of human nature once 

 observed that in the shadow of a great 

 affliction the soul sits dumb. How could 

 this truth be illustrated more strikingly 

 than in the faces of the loved ones who 

 watch and wait for the victims to be 

 brought from the horror chambers of a 

 mine disaster? 



That "health is the vital principle of 

 bliss, and exercise of health" would seem 

 to be the creed of the "Snow ■ Birds" 

 shown on Plate Nil, while those two 

 "studies in color" on Plates IX and XIII, 

 may seem to indicate that a danger 

 avoided is a danger scorned, and that 

 "good digestion waits on appetite." 



France and America contend for ge- 

 niality in the facial expressions repro- 

 duced in Plates XIV and XV, while in 

 the final scene of the series we see that 



"The world is all before them, where to choose 

 Their place of rest, and Providence their 

 guide." 



2S4 



