Camera Work: A Photographic Quarterly (1906 (Heft 13))

THE LONDON PHOTOGRAPHIC SALON FOR 1905.
THERE is no doubt about it, the American side of the
London Photographic Salon for 1905, held at the Gallery
of the Royal Society of Water-colours, is in general and in
particular, the freshest, the newest, the most progressive,
the most encouraging, and by far the best collection
America has yet sent to London. But, seeing the high
level of the bulk and the enormous superiority of the
few best things, I would have liked it to consist of sixty-
five frames instead of the full limit of seventy-five, which
our gallery-space imposed on us. Quite ten frames might
with strict justice have been deleted as without value to a public exhibition;
they may be of great use to their makers as landmarks in their progress; but
for exhibition-walls one ought to expect, and get, only really worked-out and
definitely achieved things; certainly not such things as many of these are-
due to fogged plates, or bad paper, or to the ignorant or mistaken use of
photographic tools.
Though fine technique is secondary in importance, it is as absolutely
essential as the vision, the conception, the desire. No vision can be fully put
down except by pure and accomplished technique; and the ten frames I
would have deleted show, to me, such a plentiful lack of this proof of student-
ship as to make them positively painful to those who know what photo-
graphic technique means and who are also enthusiasts and purists on the
artistic side.
To turn to the real pictures, Mr. Steichen gives, on the whole, a bigger
impression than before. The two color-studies, No. 131, The Flat-Iron,and
No. 138, The Pondy Moonrise, are both extremely fine in vision and working-
out, without any eccentricities to mar their completeness; and though stimu-
lating somewhat to the incredulous from the purely photographic point of
view (till one knows how they are done!) they are plainly due to camera and
lens, and finely effective on the walls. The Pond, Moonrise, No. 138, is espe-
cially fine in color. No. 130, In Memoriam, is a quite notable nude study,
very fine in line and disposition, and the abandonment of despair is well sug-
gested by the untortured pose and the mass of falling hair. No. 129, The
Poster Lady, is gloriously full and rich; it glows with fine lighting, and its
masses and the subordination of detail make it amply deserving of its title.
I am especially grateful to Mr. Stieglitz for lending us his copy of 142, the
full and best version of the celebrated Rodin negative. It is new to us here,
and is a great contribution to the dignity and beauty of our walls. The
value and effect of emphasis in the rich and deep but far from empty blacks,
in the soft and splendidly modeled contours of the Hugo statue, has never
been better shown in any photographic work. It is a unique triumph for
the artist in both the camera-work and the superb printing. No. 144 is
very welcome to me, as it gives so intimate a portrait of the artist himself.
It is a most personal effort, and I enjoy nothing more on our walls.
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