Camera Sculptures FACES from Subjects (Dec, 1933)

Camera Sculptures FACES from Subjects

The machine has at last invaded the world of art. An amazing new mechanism recently devised combines the principles of the movie camera and the pantograph to turn out plaster busts just as an ordinary camera makes photographic portraits.

Making the bust requires a sitting of only five minutes on the part of the subject. During this time 400 still photographs are made from as many angles by a rotating camera, as illustrated above. Film containing these 400 pictures, each throwing the profile into relief, is run through a projector which throws the enlarged image on a translucent screen. Each of these pictures is traced along the profile with a stylus attached to the arm of a huge pantograph, to whose other end is attached a rapidly rotating pneumatic drill cutting out the plaster block.

Each of the 400 pictures is traced out in this manner till at last an accurate likeness of the subject has been completed. As a final touch the tiny ridges between cuts are smoothed out, leaving the bust ready to be cast in bronze.