Vickipedia

PHOTO-SCULPTURE, invented by M. Willeme in 1867, is an ingenious use of photography to assist a sculptor in modelling portrait statues, or facsimiles and reduced reproductions of other statues. The subject stands in the center of a circular chamber, and is simultaneously photographed by no less than twenty-four cameras, arranged at equal distances round the chamber. The twenty-four photographs are subsequently made available, in the sculptor’s studio, where the clay model is arranged on a frame capable of being turned round. A magic lantern throws the outline of photograph No. 1 on a screen in front of the artist, who by means of a pantograph brings this outline to bear on the clay in its first position. The model is then turned round 1/24th of a revolution, and the outline of photograph No. 2 is taken advantage of. Thus the modeller works his way, in twenty-four changes, round the model, and the likeness or facsimile or reduced figure of the original is or should be complete. The method, which was also applied to the taking of medallions and the like, never came much into use, in spite of its ingenuity.