Camera Work: A Photographic Quarterly (1914 (Heft 46))

MARIUS DE ZAYAS— MATERIAL, RELATIVE, AND
ABSOLUTE CARICATURES

THE Century Dictionary defines caricature: “A representation, pictorial
or descriptive, in which beauties or favorable points are concealed or
perverted and peculiarities or defects exaggerated, so as to make the
person or thing represented ridiculous, while a general likeness is retained.”
Caricature is said to be derived from caricare, to load, overload, exaggerate.
This definition does not adapt itself to such work as De Zayas calls
caricatures, and I would prefer to spell the word characature, deriving the
work from the root character. We will refrain, however, from coining a new
word and will only claim that the definition given by the Century Dictionary
is too narrow and that caricature should also be understood to mean “A pic-
torial representation, through emphasis of certain traits, of physical or men-
tal characteristics, a representation of character through form.”
Personal caricature or the caricature of persons therefore concerns itself
with the representation of the character of people. In other words it selects
or emphasizes that which is characteristic of the person it seeks to represent.
De Zayas conceives that a human being can be represented in one of
the following ways:
First: Through Photography which gives us only the exterior or ob-
jective appearance of the subject, and only so much of his character as we
would be able to discover by looking at the person himself according to our
faculties for judging of character. Ordinary portraiture reflects the same
point of view as photography, and differs only in the use of the medium
used for fixing the image permanently, a mechanical means being employed
in one case and the human hand in the other.
Second: Material caricature which represents the morphological traits
of the subject emphasizing those which are characteristic or reveal some
personal trait of character.
Third: Relative caricature which combines the physical and psycho-
logical principles represents the person at a given time when under the in-
fluence of a definite mood, or manifestation of the personality.
Fourth: Absolute caricature represents the person in his relation to the
outside world, his place in the evolution, and his individual characteristics.
If we draw a diagram showing the component parts of the individual
to be: (i) Matter; (2) Spirit, subdivided into personality and individuality;
and, (3) the Force which marks our trajectory through life; we can say that
material caricature represents matter and the personality, the matter pre-
dominating. Relative caricature represents the personality dominated by a
temporary force; while absolute caricature represents matter, the force of
direction, and primarily the individual psychological characteristics.

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