Prairie Images

When we open a picture book about the Old West and look at one of those photographs of a lone rider frozen in time, it may not occur to us that the person in the picture was not alone. Somebody took the picture.

Somebody, also on horseback, or driving a iron-wheeled wagon over the same road-less terrain, had wrestled a hardwood-and-brass camera, the size of a desktop computer, onto a tripod and shouted to the lone rider to stand still for the picture, capturing the moment forever.

The cameras used then looked much like the “time machines” in classic science-fiction stories--which they were, in a way, preserving glimpses of everyday life 100 years ago.

And with all those knobs, bellows, lenses and that mysterious hood the operator ducked under, no one, especially children, could resist wanting to bother the operator with questions about the devices.

This Sunday, the Autry Museum of Western Heritage will give modern-day children the chance to do just that. From 1 to 2 p.m., Mike Kessler, a member of the Western Photographic Collectors Assn. and editor of its journal, the Photographist, will display period cameras and explain how they were used.

The program, intended especially for children, is the demonstration portion of an ongoing exhibit about vintage Western photography, “Photographing Montana 1894-1928: The World of Evelyn Cameron.”

In describing Cameron, exhibit curator Theresa Gonzalez noted, “She thought nothing of riding 20 miles on horseback, clutching the bulky apparatus which museum visitors can see in the current exhibition, to take pictures of frontier life.”

Before these expeditions, Gonzalez said, “Cameron would first have to work at night, in the dark, loading the light-sensitive glass photographic plates into wooden holders, which she later put into the camera one at a time to take her pictures in the daytime. It wasn’t like going to the 7-Eleven for a roll of film.”

Women photographers were not that unusual in the Old West, as several books in the museum’s bookstore attest. But modern girls visiting the exhibit may be delighted to learn that Cameron raised a lot of eyebrows in her time for another reason: She was a fashion rebel.

Gonzalez relishes the incident when “one sheriff wanted to jail her because she rode into town ‘astride’ in a culotte-style split skirt, rather than in a dress, sidesaddle.”

Cameron’s life and work provide other lessons for youngsters interested in cameras--or camcorders--today, according to Gonzalez. “What Evelyn Cameron recorded was daily life, and people back then asked her why she photographed things that were not, to them, unusual,” Gonzalez explained. “But she looked at these things with a different eye.”

Addressing kids of today and advising them to do likewise, Gonzalez said, “Your life and history are just as important as anyone else’s.”

BE THERE

Demonstration of frontier-era photographic techniques and cameras from 1 to 3 p.m. Sun. in Heritage Court of the Autry Museum of Western Heritage, 4700 Western Heritage Way, in Griffith Park. Free with admission, which is $3 for children 2 through 12, $5 for students and seniors and $7.50 for adults. (213) 667-2000.