On View Magazine Fall 2015 | Page 104

F re d e r i c k Whitman Glasier: CIRCUS PHOTOGRAPHS Opposite: Mademoiselle Scheel with Lions, ca. 1905. The Frederick Whitman Glasier: Circus Photographs exhibition is loaned by the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, the State Art Museum of Florida, under the administration of Florida State University. This traveling exhibition was co-curated by Peter Kayafas and Deborah W. Walk in 2008 from the holdings of The Ringling. The companion volume, Circus: The Photographs of Frederick W. Glasier won the AAM 2009 Frances SmythRavenel Prize for Excellence in Publication Design. 1 04 OnV i e w Ma g a z i n e . starting his career in photography, Glasier worked as a town clerk and textile designer in his hometown. By 1890, Glasier moved to Brockton, MA, and later opened the Glasier Art Studio and Museum. From his residence, Glasier worked, exhibited his photographs, and sold copies of his prints. By 1900, Glasier took publicity photographs for major circuses and Wild West shows. He had traveled out West and was greatly influenced by William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody. Performers had their photographs taken by Glasier, which they later sold to their fans. While Glasier took scenic shots of the circus and portraits of circus performers for commercial sale, he also documented the daily life of the traveling circus and Wild West show. Glasier also gave public lectures on his photographs to increase his income. The talks that Glasier gave were lantern slide lectures that used his photographs—hand tinted by his wife. These lectures were designed around his photoc om • O c t o b e r /D e c e m b e r graphs of Native Americans, the circus, and the history of the Pilgrims. Glasier used three 8 x10” King view cameras to which he added a Thornton-Pickard focal plane shutter with a speed up to 1/3,000th of a second (just a little longer than today’s camera flash speed and quicker than it takes to blink your eyes!). Glasier also used a Coerz Celor lens on a 5x7” Graflex with an accordion-line pleated focusing hood, as well as a postcard Kodak camera. With all this equipment, Glasier is said to be a master of the “action shot,” capturing an image of an object or person in motion. After over fifty years as a professional photographer, Glasier retired and spent his time wood carving, or “whittling” as he called it. He died on July 28, 1950, in Brockton, and was buried in his hometown of Adams, MA. According to Kayafas, Glasier should be regarded not only as a gifted circus photographer, but also among the greats of American photography. O n V iew 2015