Camera Work: A Photographic Quarterly (1904 (Heft 8))

SOME IMPRESSIONS OF FOREIGN EXHIBITIONS.

AFTER AN interval of just ten years I once more found myself in
Europe. During that period I had witnessed the evolution of
pictorial photography and had watched its struggles against the
hostile environment of ignorance, prejudice, selfishness, vanity,
conceit, intrigue, provincialism and a host of other malign
influences. After a short stay in Europe, I returned to America in 1894
and found that modern pictorial photography, as that term is now under-
stood by a few people, had just begun its infancy, though it gave promise of
the qualities it has since developed. In Great Britain, at this same time, it
was already approaching its maturity; in Austria it had reached its period of
adolescence; in Germany it was yet unborn; in France it was expected;
while to the rest of the world it was unknown. Since that time American
photography has reached its maturity and has won for itself a recognized
position as a leading influence in the development of the art. At times I
felt within myself some doubt whether I had not attached an exaggerated
importance to the pictures which we had produced. It is true that my faith
in the ultimate success of photography as a means of pictorial expression had
never wavered since first (1885) it claimed me as its own, and it was not
until my present visit to Europe that I gained the perspective which enabled
me to judge the true proportions of photographic accomplishments. At last
I found the opportunity to personally weigh the picked American work in
the same scale with the best of the European.
DRESDEN.
It was in no very cheerful frame of mind that I visited the International
Art Exhibition at Dresden. For, though I had expected to find much-needed
rest and recreation in Europe, I had scarcely landed when my health col-
lapsed completely and I found myself spending the first four weeks of my
pleasure trip in a private hospital in Berlin. Hardly out of the sick bed,
and against the express instructions of my physician, the ruling passion
asserted itself. Photography allured me to Dresden and I went. The
attraction was more than I, in my enfeebled condition, could resist. Had
not the authorities of the Grosse Internationale Dresdner Kunstausstellung
—the foremost exhibition of its kind in Europe at present—conceded all
the claims that the most enthusiastic pictorialists had made ? And had not
the Photo-Secession sent a small, but choice, collection thither? Imagine,
then, my feelings when I found myself at the gates of the Exhibition
inquiring where the photographs were hung and was directed to a small
auxiliary building! So great was my disgust at what seemed to me the
duplicity of the management which had held out such fair promises that I
was upon the point of leaving without looking at either photographs or any-
thing else. Sober second thought overcame this impulse and, disappointedly,
I entered the building. Once more I underwent a revulsion of feeling. I
was indeed pleasantly surprised at what I saw. Here was a large hall divided

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