HAPPY MAIDS OF THE ORIENT -- An Un-Cut 3-D PROOF-PRINT from a TRANSPOSING FRAME

KEYSTONE FILE NO. KU88226 -- Happy Maids of the Orient, Japan. This is one of a few fulll-size, un-cut, transposed, variant proof prints of this subject made by KEYSTONE VIEW COMPANY circa 1915, after they acquired the entire negative stock of the KILBURN VIEW COMPANY.

 

The negative itself was exposed in Japan circa 1900. The 3-D photographer is unknown.

 

A THREE-DAY VISIT TO THE MOTHER LODE

 

The years was 2009. The above photo had just been removed from a box and placed on a large work table. It sat there under rather dim light in its natural, slightly curled state. It was also in a clear, archival, protective sleeve.

 

Beside me was Ms. LEIGH GLEASON, curator of the CALIFORNIA MUSEUM OF PHOTOGRAPHY, who was overseeing my hand-held copy work of many early JAPANESE STEREOVIEWS for personal study.

 

I spent three days there looking at old Japanese photography, and barely scratched the surface.

 

It is with her kind permission that I occasionally post some examples to Flickr for non-commercial, educational purposes.

 

THE PROOF-PRINT BEHIND THE STEROVIEW

 

I'm posting this in association with two old, finished stereoviews made from a slightly different, variant negative taken only moments apart from the above. [Link is at bottom of the caption ]

 

The three Geisha had to hold this pose while the photographer changed out the larger, glass negatives --- taking at least a few shots to make sure at least one of them came out OK.

 

The above was NOT OK, as the Geisha on the left had her eyes blinked shut for this one !

 

However, the negative was not discarded, and KEYSTONE made a careful, cataloged record of it.

 

NOTE : PLEASE LOOK AT THE BOTTOM AND TOP OF THE ABOVE IMAGE, as it was usually these areas of the print that were trimmed away after being framed out by the die-cutter, while re-sizing the print to be mounted on the card stock.

 

The decorative Japanese Parasol is the largest one I have even seen in an old studio shot. Those having only the trimmed, published images don't recognize the parasol background for what it is.

 

In cases like this, studying the full negative sometimes has it clarifying moments, and other "off screen" surprises to be found.

 

STEREOVIEW HEAVEN

 

There is great research and pictorial value in the hundreds of thousands of old stereoview prints and glass negatives held by the CMP in RIVERSIDE, CALIFORNIA. Anyone needing 19th Century or early-20th Century images from almost anywhere in the world should avail themselves of their massive (yet accommodating) archive.

 

♥ TWO ORIGINAL, FINISHED STEREOVIEWS MADE FROM ONE OF THE ABOVE SESSION SHOTS : www.flickr.com/photos/okinawa-soba/23297731223/

 

♥ CALIFORNIA MUSEUM OF PHOTOGRAPHY : www.flickr.com/photos/okinawa-soba/albums/72157644819895822

 

Cheers !

 

CREDIT : Keystone-Mast Collection, UCR/California Museum of Photography, University of California at Riverside.

 

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FREE-VIEW PHOTO NOTE : Due to the above image being copied with a hand-held camera, without regard to obtaining exact, perpendicular aim toward the print, nor having the un-evenly curled print lie flat, uneven depth anomalies and odd warping of the content will be seen when free-viewing the image in 3-D. However, if you consciously take those things into consideration, you can still extract a useful grasp of the natural position of things in their relative position of depth to each other.

 

 

Done