EXHIBITIONS.
[Sidenote: Exhibitions.]
Exhibiting a work of art is publishing it, and the student will, when he
obtains suitable works, very naturally begin to think about exhibiting
them. The subject of photographic exhibitions is one upon which we have
written many times in the photographic press. Photographic exhibitions are
in a most unsatisfactory condition all over the world.
At present, a society, or a corporation, or a private firm, for ends of
their own, advertise an exhibition, often on purely financial grounds;
they hope it will pay them, sometimes it does pay and sometimes it does
not. The method of organizing these exhibitions is to get a list of
patrons, generally a few of the “classes,” a few photographers who are
known, but whose fame more often than not is based on nothing solid, and
is ephemeral, and finally perhaps the names of a few artists may be used
to conjure with. Numbers of medals are advertised and all works have to be
sent _carriage paid_. The judges are then chosen, and in nearly all cases
they are utterly incompetent. _No one can judge a work of art unless he be
an artist._ The combined assurance and ignorance of those who accept what
should be considered a serious office, is laughable and lamentable. Is our
exhibiting student then going to submit his work to men untrained in art?
If he does, he will find it either unhung, skied, or passed over in the
awards, to make room for the pretty nothings and false renderings of the
craftsmen’s ideal. The whole judging business is such a blatant farce that
the method of awards at photographic exhibitions is a stock joke among
artists. We have repeatedly been to exhibitions with artists, and on
nearly every occasion their opinion was that many of the most worthy
pictures were passed over. Such a state of things is appalling, and when
with that is coupled the notorious unfairness with which certain
exhibitions are directed, as recent disclosures have proved, it is indeed
lamentable. The tendency of all exhibitions as at present conducted is to
_degrade_ photography as an art; that is our deliberate opinion, after
having for several years watched the system of making awards and having
served on several juries of awards. A fatal error very common among
photographers is to suppose that, because a man is an eminent scientist or
a great authority on lenses, he is therefore a fit and proper person to
judge _pictures_. The truth is he is one of the most unfit, for he is
prejudiced, and his scientific knowledge has a bad influence on his
judgment.
[Sidenote: Abolition of medals.]
In our opinion all medals should be done away with, all distinctions
between “amateur” and “professional” removed; all pictures should be hung
on the line, the hanging committee should be selected from those
photographers who have proved themselves _by their works_ to know most
about art; and all pictures should be exhibited in separate frames. If
medals must be awarded in order to attract exhibitors, let the awards be
made by artists of recognized position only. You have only to look at the
medals awarded, to know what to expect; there is, with one or two
exceptions, not the feeblest suggestion of art in them, they belong to the
class of medals awarded to patent ice-cream machines, best refined
arrow-root and dog-biscuits. [Sidenote: Medals as works of art.] If medals
are awarded, each one should be a work of art, the original having been
modelled by a good sculptor. The student, as a rule then, should pay no
regard whatever to the awards made at exhibitions by photographers, the
only real test of value is when the awards are made by trained artists,
but it is rarely that even one artist serves on a jury of awards.
If our student must exhibit, we advise him to mark his work “Not for
Competition.” [Sidenote: Gambling for medals.] Gambling for medals has
lately assumed alarming proportions, as the recent comments in the
_Photographic News_ prove. It is enough to disgust all artists, who will
of course keep aloof from photographic circles, as they already do, as
long as things continue as they are. [Sidenote: Queer judges.] Can the
folly of human nature go further than when we hear of Mr. Guncotton, noted
for his studies in collodion, or Mr. Chromatic, noted for his patent lens,
or Mr. Gelatine noted for his emulsion process, assembling in solemn
conclave to award medals for pictures, to judge which, needs years of
careful and special study and wide artistic experience. The student,
curious on these matters, has only to note how different are the awards
when artists give the prizes. Many of our best workers, we know, will not
exhibit, so long as the craftsman’s ideal is set up as the standard, and
the judges are not artists. [Sidenote: Early days of the Photographic
Society.] In the early days of photography, when Sir Charles Eastlake,
formerly president of the Royal Academy, was also president of the Royal
Photographic Society, and when Sir W. J. Newton, the eminent miniature
painter was one of the vice-presidents, there seemed some chance for
photography, and all might have gone well, had not these artists, as we
are informed, been harried and worried by the ignorant wranglings of their
brother “photographic artist” (?) judges. Those who were thus responsible
for the resignation of those artists, deserve to be pilloried to the end
of time in photographic literature, and such, we are sure, is the feeling
of all who earnestly wish for the good and advancement of photography.
[Sidenote: J. Constable.]
This is a painful subject, but we conceive it to be our solemn duty to
warn the student who is anxious to follow photography as an art, against
all these traps. Let him set out with the determination to work for the
approval of artists, and let him despise the approval or disapproval of
all ignorant of art. As John Constable said long ago, “the self-taught
artist has a very ignorant master!”
[Sidenote: Reforms in exhibitions.]
We hope the reforms regarding exhibitions which we have for years
advocated, and more fully set forth in a photographic journal, in an
article entitled “An Ideal Exhibition,” may some day be adopted, but we
cannot be very sanguine. However, until some such reforms are adopted,
photography must struggle on in darkness, and the blind will continue to
lead the blind; and all we can do is to caution others, and ourselves
avoid the guidance of the blind, unless we too wish to be led into the
ditch.