Camera Work: A Photographic Quarterly (1906 (Heft 16))

If success be a criterion, the correctness of the policy of the Photo-
Secession at once became apparent in the immediate and convincing character
of the results.
Collections of selected American prints were sent abroad by invitation
on the strength of the showing of the National Arts Club. Not only did the
American work win universal attention, but was enthusiastically conceded to
be in the front rank of the pictorial photographic work of the world, and at
Turin and elsewhere was awarded premier position among the national work
shown. And, furthermore, its evident seriousness of purpose and convincing
results won in many places serious consideration by the public and by the
management of art institutions, of the claims of pictorial photography, a
matter of far greater importance to the Secession. In Die Photographische
Kunst for 1905, Ernst Schul recites what appears to have been the universal
impression made by the American work abroad:
It is a mark of maturity in them that they steer entirely clear of exaggeration, pretension, and
modern affectations. They are the most modern of all, yet the most sure and reposeful. They are
the most advanced, yet they have prepared their position with circumspection, and they reach a con-
sciously selected goal with the calm of perfect deliberation, like the hunter who, with a cool and
deadly aim, reaches his prey.
They do not overstep their limits, but seek the highest possible perfection within their
clearly-defined sphere. They do not reach out for the impossible, the forbidden, and avoid every
insincere pose. Being of a practical bend, they exploit the possibilities of their technique, thus pro-
ducing a rare harmony between their aspirations and their attainments. At every step we feel that
they have practiced long and hard; their development has passed through a number of stages; and
their work is entirely free from the faults of the beginner’simpatience.
When the announcement of the formation of the Secession was made
public, it was received in many quarters rather derisively. But when successes
here and abroad began to crown its earliest labors, the attitude changed to
one of expectant interest. Finally, when all was ready, the Little Galleries
were opened. The rooms were gotten up in the simplest possible manner,
and a series of exhibitions put on the walls displaying numerous original
examples of the best work of the world. Before opening the Little Galleries,
the Secession, as has been seen, had tested its strength by exhibitions in the
United States and abroad. As an organization, it had kept apart from all
entanglements with other organizations. Effort was repeatedly made to
affiliate it with other organizations, or to draw it into controversy. Experience
had taught it the lesson of the safeness of standing alone. Into controversy
or politics it always declined to enter. On the other hand, it opposed no
organization or individual, and where good work appeared, at once gave it
recognition, and sought to secure it for its own exhibitions. The exhibitions
displayed in the Little Galleries, covered European as well as American work.
All of the exhibitions attracted widespread and serious attention, not alone
from the photographers, but from the art-loving public, the editors of some
of the leading art magazines, and some of the leading painters of the city.
During the last five months of this year’s season, the galleries were visited
in all by something over 15,000 people. Among those visitors came the
manager of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, which, having helped

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