(Testimony of John G. Graef)
Mr. Graef.
would furnish these two negatives to a customer and he might print it in two colors, choosing whatever colors he wanted.
Mr. Jenner.
Yes; he could use whatever ink he wished to employ on the mat?
Mr. Graef.
That's correct.
Mr. Jenner.
Or, do you sometimes use lead slugs?
Mr. Jenner.
Of course, the customer would make a lead slug from the mat and then print it?
Mr. Graef.
Yes. Or, have a plate made, for example, in offset printing from our negatives--he could burn in plates and which would run two colors. He could burn his black plate and he could burn his red plate, for example.
Mr. Jenner.
Well, I got you to digress a little bit from tolling us your teaching of Mr. Oswald from his gradual development or undevelopment?
Mr. Graef.
Of course, Oswald was not the first one that has come into our department, because his wasn't an unusual case. He was just another employee among many whom I have trained during these years--through these years.
Mr. Jenner.
Were there others you were training at this time?
Mr. Jenner.
Of substantially like experience?
Mr. Graef.
No. There were others in various stages of training, but none who was starting from the very beginning, we'll say, so, of course, even though he had had--he said he had had experience in photography, we started from the very beginning because the papers that you ordinarily use in amateur photography are somewhat different from the papers that we use in our work. The film that you would use in amateur photography is different than the film that we use in our work, so we start from the beginning in every case and this was the situation with Lee Oswald.
I began---we'll say for the first 3 or 4 days---he probably followed me around just to see what went on, learned how to make a print on the contact frame the way that our customers require, and became familiar with the routine of the department and little by little he was allowed to do various things to begin his training.
This period is rather indistinct because all this was going on--it isn't a case of being able to devote all of one's time to a training, at the same time that he was being trained, there was other work that had to be produced, so he didn't receive---the full benefit, shall I say, of all of my time. I would say rather, he received just the time that I could allow him, which I always wanted to give him more time but never seemed to find that time, so little by little, as I say, this period is very indistinct, but little by little he learned to handle the various papers and the films and then we began teaching him how to work the modification cameras beginning with straight shooting.
In other words---normal sizing of flax Copy and also how to build Jobs. Each man" is more or less an integrated supply of the work. The normal thing in our department is for a man to pick-up a job or jobs, go back and shoot them, develop them, print them, dry them, bring them back up, cut them and bring them back up to the front of the department.
Mr. Jenner.
When you say "print them," you mean make prints from the negatives?
Mr. Graef.
Make prints from the negatives on photographic paper, bring them back up to the front, reorganize them with their proper Job tickets, and then take those finished jobs up to the front delivery desk. So, Lee began straight shooting--normal enlargement and reduction of straight copy.
Mr. Jenner.
Now, you mean by straight copy--do you distinguish that from the from distortion photographing?
Mr. Graef.
Distortion work; yes. Now, the time that it took to bring him up to this point may have been 2 or 3 months, at any rate. It was at this time that we began, or he began to make a few mistakes on sizing. He would take a job back and it might be that his orders were to make it 4 inches wide and when the final print came up it might be" 4 1/4 inches wide or 4 1/8 inches Wide and this would have to be done over.
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