Camera Work: A Photographic Quarterly (1903 (Heft 1))

being that such examples must “pass the critical inspection of the National
Jury of Selection of the Department of Art”; and that then, " if the
pictures thus admitted are by United States exhibitors they shall be hung in
the United States Section of the Art Building to such extent as the room
available will permit.” On the other hand, " in case they do not find
suitable space in the Art Building,” although selected, they will be
provided for in the Liberal Arts Palace. Further, pictures from foreigners
will be admitted under similar rules, subject to the regulations of the
respective foreign sections " as to whether they can be hung in the foreign
sections of art or not.” Selection by the Art Jury; admission to the Art
Building, if space permits; foreign photographs to be subject to foreign
endorsement of the new rules — the provision is not quite so satisfactory
as it appeared upon the surface.
UNQUESTIONABLY it represents a bona fide attempt to recognize the
claims of modern pictorial photography, and yet each one of its separate
clauses is likely to militate against a satisfactory representation. For example,
there is the qualifying proviso concerning space. Was there ever yet an
exposition in which the Art Building proved sufficient for the demands put
upon it by painting and sculpture? Nothing short of the definite allocation
of a space, however small, for photographic prints of approved merit will
afford any assurance of room being eventually found for them in the Art
Building. In the face of the present uncertainty it is scarcely to be expected
that the best photographers will consider it worth while to submit their prints.
AGAIN, as to the National Jury of Selection: will it contain any repre-
sentation of the photographers, and, if so, of those who are identified with
the best work, as shown in the various salons of this country and Europe ?
Actual expert knowledge of photographic processes is of less importance than
this wide acquaintance with the notable achievements ; for prints that might
have passed for notable a short time ago have been superseded in character
and quality by later productions; and even among the photographers them-
selves it is only those who have kept themselves in touch with the impor-
tant exhibitions that are in a position to judge of the kind of work which
should be accepted as representative of the latest phase of the movement.
Without such expert assistance a jury of painters and sculptors would
hardly prove satisfactory in the judging of photographs, for so few of them
have taken enough interest to acquaint themselves with the subject. Except
as an assistance to their own work, they do not treat it seriously, and their
attitude toward a print is generally one of surprise that it should be as
good as or no worse than it is. Moreover, there is among painters espe-
cially a very general prejudice against admitting photography to any sort
of recognition as a fine art; and, though men may be honest in intention,
their judgment can seldom rule quite free of their prejudices.
AS to the third proviso, that the admission of selected foreign prints into
the section of their respective countries shall depend upon the regulations
of those sections themselves, one may perhaps gage the result by the recent
action of the hanging committee at the Champs de Mars. The Jury of

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