Camera Work: A Photographic Quarterly (1904 (Heft 5))

AN IMPRESSION OF THE LONDON
PHOTOGRAPHIC SALON.

¶ THE ELEVENTH Annual Exhibition of the Linked Ring opened
on the seventeenth of September, with the usual private view, which function
steadily grows in popularity, and this year was almost uncomfortably
crowded between four and five in the afternoon.
¶ The decorations are the same as last year, and the valerium sheds a gentle,
diffused light over the photographs, and accelerates the visitor’s departure,
for while it hides the ugly roof and improves the look of the whole room, it
almost asphyxiates those who have the temerity to linger longer than an
hour.
¶ The first impression on entering the gallery this year is one of delight,
thanks to the harmonious hanging; the next is one of slight disappointment
during the first casual glance round, as there are fewer large striking pictures
from Vienna. But the third and lasting impression, with the writer at least,
was one of reassurance and satisfaction that the show was well up to the
average. Clever, cultivated, thinking workers are palpably on the increase,
and there is more diversity in individual expression than heretofore.
¶ Personally I feel that the gap caused by the total absence of pictures by
Steichen, Clarence White, Mrs. Käsebier, Joseph Keiley and Stieglitz is an
irreparable one, and that there is nothing new that will take their place.
(Mrs. Käsebier's work arrived after the hanging was completed and the
catalogues printed.) But although irreparable as regards the present exhibi-
tion, it is, I am glad to be able to assert, only temporary, and next year
we can hope to see these strongest of American camera-men again repre-
sented at the Dudley Gallery.
¶The bare fact of the absence of the above-mentioned names from the
catalogue, necessitates a small and a weak collection from the States in
comparison with last year. But even as it stands, there is some very
interesting work sent.
¶ There can be no doubt that Alvin Langdon Coburn has made most
distinctive progress. Knowing the man personally, it is not difficult to
recognize the influences that are making themselves felt on his plastic
personality. For instance, I take it that Steichen’sRodin is directly respon-
sible for the portrait of Sidney Allan (170) and that his sojourn with Mrs.
Käsebier is not unconnected with the style of his portrait of that lady and
of the picture of Joseph T. Keiley. But these are good influences and I
look forward to the time when Coburn’s originality, enriched by his early
and very fortunate surroundings, will thoroughly assert itself, for he is
already taking a prominent place among American pictorial workers.
¶ Yarnall Abbott's treatment of Japanese indoor life is fascinating, but
the models seem to lack the essential characteristics of the far eastern
physiognomy, at least to one who is familiar with the land of the chrysanthe-
mum. Mrs. Sear's portraits always possess a strong attraction for me and
she strikes a new note in the atmospheric mystery attained in her low-toned

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