Top cinematographer Struss was besotted with Bermuda's beauty

Karl Struss was born in New York in 1886 and his talent became evident at an early age.

By the time he was 25, his work was represented in the magazine Camera Work. Two years earlier in 1910 Alfred Stieglitz, the man considered the father of Modernism in American photography, gave Struss a whole wall in the Photo-Secessionists exhibition at the Albright Gallery in
Buffalo, New York.

Struss played a major and formative role in the development and promotion of Pictorialism (a movement or technique in photography emphasizing artificial often romanticized pictorial qualities). In 1909, he invented and patented the Struss Pictorial Lens, which allowed for a soft overall focus and tight composition. He was instrumental in the development of the new process of platinum printing which William Willis had invented in 1873. This process made it possible to achieve contrasts and blacks so deep that, upon seeing Struss’ work for the first time, Stieglitz wet his finger and touched them — never having seen anything like them before. Struss also experimented in autochrome, an early form of colour photography, and used this method in 1913 when he visited the island and was dazzled by the vivid colours. This was only six years after it was invented by Lumiere Brothers in 1907.

In November 1912, Karl Struss visited Bermuda on holiday and later wrote to Alfred Stieglitz that the island was probably “the most beautiful, charming and quaint place I have ever visited-and as far as colour — there is nothing like it anywhere else in Europe.” Upon his return from this trip, he was contacted by Richard Butler Slawzer, who was in charge of Bermuda tourist advertising. Slawzer had seen Struss’ photograph Hamilton Bermuda, Moonlight in the Montross Gallery NY. He hired Struss to take photographs for the Bermuda Trade Development Board’s official guidebook for 1915-1916  Bermuda, and Nature’s Fairyland. This assignment was a major turning point in his life, marking not only the beginning of his career as a professional photographer, but also his first contact with a member of the cinema industry. Struss had brought a multiple tourist camera using 35mm motion picture film, which came in 50-foot roles and could take 750 exposures without reloading. He was so entranced by Bermuda’s lush landscape that he used the entire roll in his first week on the island. He didn’t want to wait for further supplies from New York and discovered an American movie company was filming here. Charles Rosher, a successful British photographer who had moved to Hollywood, gave Struss some “short ends” ‚            — left over pieces of motion picture film.

Struss never took snapshots. Every print he made was composed with care, patience and the photographer’s eye.

In Bermuda he made exquisite, delicate prints where colour was absent and the depth and richness of his platinum prints created an impact and elicited an emotional response that conveyed the power of Struss’ reaction to Bermuda’s beauty.

Struss eventually moved to Hollywood and had an extremely successful career as a cinematographer and won the first Academy Award ever given for cinematography for Sunset in 1929.

Photos by Struss are currently exhibiting at Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art where Elise Outerbridge is curator.