_Milford, Godalming, January 29, 1872._
THE PHOTOGRAPHIC DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION.
_To the_ EDITORS.
GENTLEMEN,—The notice which the direction of the International
Exhibition has sent to your Journal is sufficiently unsatisfactory to be
discussed a little before the photographic profession commits itself to
the mercies of that institution for another such display as we had last
year.
It seems to some of us that the least the management could do, if the
leading photographers are expected to contribute, would be to put some
one on the photographic committee whom they are accustomed to regard as
identified in a high degree with the interests of the art, or whose
interest in it they feel assured of. We should have imagined that one of
the presidents of the photographic societies, or at least one of those
eminent amateurs who have really contributed to the advancement of
photographic science, and shown a disinterested devotion to it in its
present condition, would have had the selection, or, at least, a voice
in the selection, of the pictures to be exhibited.
As it is, we have Dr. Diamond, who was, in years gone by, interested in
photography, and who is understood to be in the present combination a
passive member; Mr. Thompson, of whom most of us know nothing; and Col.
Stuart Wortley, whom some of the profession do not accept as an
authority, and in whose position, as having a commercial interest in
photography in no way identified with that of the profession at large,
they find excellent reasons why he should not be put forward as the
judge and spokesman of it. If a professional photographer is to be
assigned this position, Col. Wortley’s place is not sufficiently high to
justify his selection. If an outsider must be selected, he is
disqualified, as being commercially interested on the one hand and a
disputed authority on the other, or one at least to whom few good
professionals will defer.—I am, yours, &c.,