PHOTOGRAPHING HITLER

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 387, 23 November 1932, Page 3

PHOTOGRAPHING HITLER

A DIFFICULT TASK CAMERAMAN BAFFLED BY GERMAN NAZI LEADER. AN UNINSPIRED EFFORT. Photographing Adolph Hitler, the .leader of the Nazis, was my recompense for shooting" by way through' 4000 kilometres of German depression, writes James Abbe in an African paper. In retrospect, the depression was more fun. When I had packed up my apparatus in Hitler's ofSce in "The Brown House," the image of Germany's rising young Santa Claus safely impressed upon my films, I was disturbed by the thought. that the films might just as well have heen left as they were. Not that I underestimats th'e significance of Hitler, but I knew I had failea| to bring out the secret of his power that the world's reading public might finally gaze on soul-revealing photographs. Hitler turned this way and that at my request, acquiesced in my demands. I could hear the shutter click time after time, and yet something told me each shot was uninspired. I was merely taking photographs of a man, any man, every man, sitting in his office. Just beyond my grasp was the leader of a movement which might precipitate the world into a fit, or spread sweetness and light — all aecording to how things turn out. Overtrained. I think I was overtrained for my bout with Hitler. For two months I had been hsaring a friend of mine, H. R. I-inickerbocker, the author3 telling me I would he famous after I'd photographed Hitler. I drove a car and shot pictures while ICnick sifted Germany's problems through his typewriter. Two months of one night stands, aarly morning departures, feverish races with time, dead lines and hurried meals told on me as we groped our way through a dense fog over the last hundred kilometres to the 'end of our 4000 kilometre journey about Germany. Rousing himself as we passed "The Brown House," Kniek said. "Well this is the promised land! Munich! Yonder lies the home of Hitler." And I almost skidded on to the sidewalk in anticipation., As Hitler arose "from behind his imposing deslc and extended a soft hand, I saw that his outer self masks a tremendous reserve of hysteria. The man whose courage is unquestioned seemed jumpy at the sight of my camera. I had fhat uncomfortable feeling one has in the presence of a woman who will make a scene on the slightest provocation. Hitler has fine eyes, which regarded me with suspicion. Hanfstaengi,- his Press agent, said only one photographer in Germany Hitler would sit foif and that he had never intended to expose himself to an alien cameraman. Two Faux Pas. Had it not been for my involuntary working fast I would not have made the faux pas of requesting Hitler to* stand beside a big bronze bust of Mussolini which rests on a pedestal near his desk. My impromptu inspiration to shoot the two heads together brought the information from Hitler that he had| never met his colleague in Fascism. He added that, although he held great admiration for Mussolini, he did not wish to he photographed with II Duee's bust. So that was that, and I resisted an impulse to request Hitler to pose°un-

cier tne portraxt of Frederick the Great, which holds the seetor on the other side of his desk. There was a case of flowers on the centre table, which, for a moment I considered placing in Hitler's hand. Knick seemed to divine my thought, because he gave me a dirty Took. So I finally wangled Hitler alongside a bronze statue of "Germany Enchained," with a painting of a "Battle in Flandeis on the wall above for good measure. Then I fell back on the old, frayededge idea of having Hitler sit at his desk. It occurred to me that I had a family support, and that I'd better get something out of this job that would bring in a little rent and food money. So I concentrated on the face of my prospect. I ran my eye over his chin, figuratively speaking, my eye rolled off for Jack of support. The chin is stubborn ratber than determined. There is no powerful jaw to get hold of. There is a slight puffiness under the eyes Extremely emotional persons develop these facial wind pockets from continuously arising emotions which back-eddy for want of adequate outlet. The Smile Froze. f When Hitler smiles he has cbarm. He smiled at Knick, at his Press agent, at his adjutant, at life in general. Once or twice he started to smile in my direction, hut each time he saw the camera the smile froze. When I have photographed Charlie Chaplm in character his moustache has fitted his role. When I have asked Charlie to remove the moustache and e himself, he has readily acquiesced, reveahng Charlie the shy, introsp'eetive} elusive p'srson who has never heen quite understood 'and never auite understood himself. But I couldn't ask Hitler to remove his moustache. Hitler Hitlerism, the entme Nazi movement, are identified with that moustache. Like the swastika, the> brown shirt, "The Brown fTf' lures voters and adorers and haffles reporters and photograph-