title: Roller Skater
artist: Mathew Brady Studio, active 1844 - 1894
source: National Portrait Gallery
notes: The Frederick Hill Meserve Collection comprises more than five thousand […]
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https://npg.si.edu/object/npg_NPG.81.M4028
This is curious: she's pretending to be in motion, leaning forward, but actually supported by some kind of stand. Was the studio going to airbrush out the evidence?
@SmithsonianRoulette This photograph type would have an exposure time of at least a few seconds outside in full sun.
(Hence lots of photo of people sitting, or carefully leaning on a chair (npg.si.edu/object/npg_NPG.81.M ).
If you wanted to pose the sitter a dynamic pose it was quite common (and accepted) to have all sorts of odd stands to help hold the pose and blur.
The studio would try hide the stands (this one is mostly behind the dress, it’s behind the skater in (...)
@SmithsonianRoulette https://npg.si.edu/object/npg_NPG.81.M3125 ), but at the time there is no ability to do more than that.