frees photography.

there's this little candy shop around the corner from cris' house and we were in there the other day looking at all the weird gummy candies for sale. they also sold other sundries like these little books by harry whittier frees of real dogs cats and rabbits dressed up in little clothes acting out scenes. i was both enthused and appalled! i was convinced that all the poor lil guys were dead and stuffed.

however, after doing some research i discovered that mr. frees used his own cats, as well as the pets of his friends and neighbors. using specially designed outfits sewn by his mother to hold the animals in standing poses, frees simply had to wait patiently for the shot he wanted. in his own words, "these unusual photographs of real animals were made possible only by patient, unfailing kindness on the part of the photographer at all times."

apparently the kitten is the most versatile animal actor, and "possesses the greatest variety of appeal". a kitten's attention is best held through the sense of sight, while that of a puppy is most influenced by sound, and equally readily distracted by it. due to his wiggly subjects exposures were taken at 1/5th of a second and two-thirds of the negatives had to be discarded.

i'm just so relieved that the animals were alive that i think i might go and purchase one of the books and actually be able to enjoy it knowing that the animals didn't go through too much trouble.

{found via one more river}