Pictorial Photographers of America

“ Its position is unique, since the worker is afforded not only an opportunity to exhibit his pictures in various museums and art galleries, but is made to feel that maintaining photographic standards and studying the arts for breadth of view are of chief importance.
Some of the advantages which photography offers are worth restating. It helps to draw one closer to nature and to seek fresh air. Through the exercise and cultivation of choice, it teaches how to decorate the home, to dress with taste, and to keep an alert eye and mind on the passing events of the world. ”

“ For one reason or another the men whose names were known ten or fifteen years ago seem to have dropped out and their places are being filled by new blood, men with high ideals and aspirations, who are not content merely with reproducing, by means of their cameras, pretty scenes and places, but who believe that photography is capable of much more—of showing not only the physical facts, but the very spirit of nature herself—a true impressionism ”

“ Exhibitions in many museums which have hitherto been indifferent to pictures made with the lens have opened the eyes of the public to the possibilities of the camera. Clubs of photographic workers in various cities have maintained or fostered the movement. The lure of the moving picture has stimulated the interest of countless multitudes in photography, and the occasional presentation of fine pictorial work in this direction has given a prophecy of better things to come. ”

“ Because the Association knows that photography is able to teach these things, it sought the aid of art museums and public libraries to conduct photographic exhibitions so that children and adults may not only see fine examples of the work of the camera in the hands of artists, but be led thereby to appreciate more fully the value of photography as an aid to interesting composition and a quickening of the eye in realizing the beauty of sunlight and shadows which flit around us much unrecognized at times. ”

“ Without losing a whit of the steady enthusiasm which has brought it to its present encouraging stage, Western pictorial photography is, nevertheless, settling down to a more staid and intellectual plane of progress.
The broad average of quality of work is steadily improving. Better standards have been established. The workers are “finding” themselves. Enthusiasm is being beneficently tempered by increased technical skill, and more particularly by the intellectual development of the art side of the work. ”

“ President of the Pictorial Photographers of America To many people photography is merely a mechanical process. To an increasing number, however, photography is being seen as an art, by which personal impressions of nature or human life may be expressed as truly as by the brush. These workers in photography see in it a medium by which the action of light upon sensitive surfaces may be so controlled as really to interpret scenes and persons in the individualistic spirit of a true art. From every part of our country come evidences of the growing appreciation of photography as a pictorial medium. ”

“ It is this live energy and enthusiasm which brings him out afield even before break of day, which leads him over hill and dale, mountain and valley, in his insatiable quest for the pictorial. Miles are as nothing; hunger stays him not ”

“ The purpose of this preliminary psychologic analysis is to explain the militant attitude of the Western pictorialist in his pursuit of the art of the camera. His extremely prolific production, manifesting itself in liberal contributions to the salons and exhibitions of the world photographic, rises not from vanity but from super-enthusiasm—from the great joy he derives in making his picture, from the creation of the beautiful, and from the playing of the game as it is best played. ”

“ After all, the making of pictures with a camera is to a large extent a matter of education and training—not so much in the way of overcoming the technical difficulties of the medium, though of course this must be learned too, but in such vital matters as composition, choice of subject matter, unity, simplicity, and the like. ”

“ The prime object, of course, is to promote and cultivate the art-sense through the science of photography.
If a camera club does not exist in the community in which the reader resides, lend your services to the formation of one. The members of the Associated Camera Clubs of America stand ready to do their utmost to assist an infant organization on its way to success. ”

“ The Association now publishes its first annual “Pictorial Photography in America,” which comprises the work of important pictorialists in this country, whether or not members of the Association. And in following out so broad a plan the Association has demonstrated to its friends that its main interests lie in the presentation of fine work, little caring who the individual may be. As soon as the world has resumed its normal stride, the Association will extend invitations for an exhibition of foreign work to be shown in America. ”

“ Oregon has many enthusiastic workers and a strong club in Portland. Washington likewise has many camera artists of talent. Both these States have an untold wealth of pictorial material and many keen pictorialists. All they lack is an active leader or two to bring them to the rank they should hold in the photographic world. ”

“ The governmental restrictions placed on the use of the camera in ports and about all public buildings, and in many sections of nearly every city, naturally had a tendency to discourage workers, but in spite of all the obstacles in the path of the art photographer the years have not been barren.
Some of the older societies have all but ceased to exist, if one can judge by their contributions to the salons. ”

“ During the past year much has been accomplished by a very few men, and through these men Maine has been represented at all the largest and best salons, not only in this country and Canada, but also in England at the London Salon. Prints by the multiple gum process are favored by some of the Portland workers, but the use of this process as a medium of expression is limited to a few men, [pg 10] and the most of the large prints produced are enlargements on bromide paper, as is probably the case generally throughout the country. ”

“ This preliminary training and the art education of the beginner can best be obtained in clubs; and in Maine the two centers of photographic activity are Portland and Bangor, in both of which cities are active camera clubs, each affiliated with the local art society and each holding annual exhibitions in the spring of the year, at which workers from all parts of the country show their pictures. ”

“ Herewith we list the names of the present officers and executive members of the Association, as well as those who are members of the Council having to do with pictorial activities in the different States. Membership in the Association is open to men and women of good character and ambitious intentions, including those who, though not photographers, are interested in the development of the art. ”

“ This is perhaps somewhat to be regretted, for although bromide paper is capable of producing very fine prints when the subject is exactly adapted to it, still it does not permit of the personal control afforded by some of the other processes, and of course this is a handicap to the pictorial worker.
As before stated, the pictorial output of the State during the past year has been limited to the work of a few men, but this condition is not going to continue for long. ”

“ But, in spite of these various influences, the workers of Massachusetts for the most part pursue solitary ways, with little enough—all too little, some would say—of the advantages that come from intimate association. ”

“ In Salt Lake City we find an active, enthusiastic and very promising group of workers under the able leadership of Thomas O. Sheckell. Through the medium of an extensive series of one-man exhibitions they have brought before the art-loving public of their city the best work of a large number of our leading pictorialists. ”

“ The most active and most promising of these centers is the Camera Pictorialists of Los Angeles. [pg 14] This club, as we may call it, has a membership of fourteen under the directorship of Louis Fleckenstein. Every member is an active worker of ability and promise. ”

“ Buttler, the Allen sisters, and a dozen others who might be mentioned, would be possible if the workers of this section were under the closely dominating influence of a centralized group, itself dominated by a single individual of exceptional powers. Such a state of affairs has sometimes been observed in other parts of the country, and the results have not always been advantageous to the interests of the individual workers. ”

“ Illustrations APRIL FLURRIESBy W. A. Alcock, Brooklyn, N.Y.PUCKACHIPE—SEAGULLBy Elizabeth R. Allen, Moorestown, N.J.MY LITTLE GRAY HOME IN THE WESTBy George M. Allen, Portland, Ore.THE BUDDHABy Fred R. Archer, Los Angeles, Cal.ISLANDERSBy Laura Adams Armer, Berkeley, Cal.ANN SPENCERBy Jessie Tarbox Beals, New YorkEARLY MORNINGBy David W. Bonnar, Buffalo, N. Y.A BIT OF HOME LIFEBy Will D. Brodhun, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.A MOMENT'S RESTBy Gertrude L. Brown, Evanston, Ill.DANCERSBy John C. Burkhardt, Portland, Ore.DOUARNENEZ, FINISTÈREBy Dr. ”