SCC 1921 Exhibition

THE SYDNEY CAMERA CIRCLE

1921 EXHIBITION

AT THE KODAK SALON, SYDNEY

15th February 1921 Page 80 - The Australasian Photographic Review

SENTINELS OF THE WOOD
James E. Paton

15th February 1921 Page 81 - The Australasian Photo-Review

This Exhibition, was officially opened by Mr. Sydney Ure Smith on the 14th February, and will remain open until the last day of the month.

Mr. Smith, in his speech, remarked that, though the present exhibition was smaller than that held in Sydney a few years ago, the general average of the work was of a very much higher level and what was frequently considered as the prejudice of artists against photography as an art could not obtain against productions such as graced the walls.

In the exhibits he was glad to see so much the result of pure photography, there being practically no faking evident. The hardest problem of the photographer was to reproduce tone values correctly. This, too, was a problem for the artist, as he not only had to translate tone values, but also correct color values as well.

He did not think that the photographers whose work was on the walls had any thing to learn from the artist as far as composition was concerned and they got the best results when they realized the limitations of their art. He could safely say, from what he knew of the best photographic work exhibited in England and the United States, that the productions of the local men displayed on the walls compared more than favorably. He congratulated the members of the The Sydney Camera Circle on the result of their efforts and declared the exhibition open.

Leaving the actual criticism of the pictures in the worthy hands of Mr. Alek Sass, we will mention a few points that were particularly noticeable. Probably the most outstanding from the photographic point of view is the careful attention shown by the The Sydney Camera Circle members to technique, proving that this must necessarily be the basis of successful pictorial photography. The correctly exposed plate or film, properly developed, then enlarged on the most suitable bromide paper, toned or untoned as suits the subject; at each stage extreme care and thought given to produce the best possible with the particular scheme. This question of good technical work has frequently been given attention in our columns and is one that should never be overlooked by any worker who aspires to succeed in photography. In the show under review, fine landscapes predominate and there is a surplus of tree studies, made under all sorts and conditions of lighting, many having unusually good examples of well-selected clouds. There is little attempt at genre; few animal studies; not many that might be described as architectural and fewer back country scenes. There is a limited number of portraits — not nearly enough, suggesting that most of the workers “shy off” this more difficult branch of the art, while child studies are almost non-existent.

It is an all-round good show, one from which photographers generally can, if they will, gain much knowledge of what is necessary if they are to, succeed in their chosen hobby.

The pictures are shown under the best possible conditions, wholly by artificial light, reflected from a white ceiling, ensuring ample illumination, quite brilliant, in fact, without glare or unevenness.

A well-arranged and finely printed catalog, containing a reproduction of one selected picture from each artist’s set, is available at the low price of threepence and so far the attendance has been very good, the central location enabling many to attend who might not otherwise do so.

The exhibition cannot but do good to the cause of pictorial photography and we heartily congratulate the members of the Circle — one and all — on the result of their efforts to show what the camera and lens, in the hands of a competent worker, can produce.

THE ARTISTS OF THE CAMERA CIRCLE
Mr. Alek Sass is particularly well-equipped to write a review of such an exhibition as that of the The Sydney Camera Circle. He studied with George Coates, later at the Melbourne National Gallery, was with Melbourne Punch for several years, contributing also work to The Bulletin and other journals; exhibited with the Victorian Artists and held a One-man Show - of Oils, Water-colors and Black-and White in Melbourne prior to visiting London and Paris. Later he carried on his profession in New York, mainly newspaper and magazine work; is at present Art Editor of Smith’s Weekly. During Mr. Sass’s sojourn abroad, he had the opportunity of studying at first hand the productions of the best of the world’s camera artists.

“An Exhibition of Pictorial Photography by the The Sydney Camera Circle in the Kodak Salon. Sydney. February 14th to 28th. Admission Free”.

So runs the modest announcement on the illustrated catalog. I was asked if I would come along and write a critical notice. I rather funked it. To paraphrase the dear old lady that is always with us at our Art exhibitions, “I know what I like, even if I don’t know anything about photography”. It seemed I might blunder into a dark room and tread on corns!

Of photography in its more intimate technical details I have no knowledge. I have had three cameras. The first was a gift camera, a rather elegant Rolls-Royce affair, with ball bearings, speedometer, non skid shutter. It was geared up to the 1,000th of a second and had time-clocks all over it. The body was luxuriously up holstered in morocco leather.

But that was long ago. I discarded it on the afternoon of the first wonder day that I went ashore at Colombo, into a riot of sunlight and color and moving masses of gabbling humanity. I was photographing anything and everything that would stand still and ninety-nine per cent, of what wouldn’t. Suddenly, at a turn of the road, a tribe of hillsmen came down the slope, shifting — with an incredible swiftness — from their home some where in the hinterland of Ceylon to a new slum over the horizon. With them were their wives and children, aunts and uncles, cows (sacred and profane), cooking pots, caste marks, rags, filth, priests, dogs. They swept down the road, cursed by the traffic in a hundred tongues, cursed by the street loafer, reviled by the Babu whose umbrella was red-grey from the dust they scuffled up. It was a kaleidoscope of color, of sunshine and shadow and types, material enough for a hundred snapshots. But by the time I had unslung my camera again and cranked her up and adjusted and re-adjusted to the varying foci that the native police thought fit to impose, only the dust of the procession and one old crone, who spat betel juice at me, was left. Straightway I garaged that camera and bought a Ford: a little black box, where you only had to push a jigger to get a picture (of sorts). I still use it, though that was ten years ago and it does all that I need for the recording of notes that are too sudden and fleeting for the sketch book and pencil.

My third camera came to me the same day. I had fraternized with a native police man and in the cool of the evening we drove out in rickshaws to visit the temples; me to be the bestower of alms or back sheesh, of course, on a stage army of priests and afterwards to honor his humble and filthy hovel with my honorable presence. It was there that my third camera appeared on the scene. It was a huge affair, home-made, the bellows of bullock’s hide, the frame of oak, brass bound and studded with brass nails. It bad been brought home by the policeman’s grandfather, who knew the blacksmith who made it — an English private, whiling away his time between intervals of fighting during the Indian Mutiny. There was no spare gun-carriage to take it away on when the blacksmith's regiment went home and so it had remained as joss or god or Buddha, until I graced my policeman’s honored abode with my excellent presence and became heir to it. Beyond that I do not know why it was wished on me. I do not know why I had no strength to refuse it. I’ve never found a use for it yet.

15th February 1921 Page 83 - The Australasian Photographic Review

WITH THE SUN'S LAST FLICKER TO IDLENESS DRIFTED
C.W. Bostock

15th February 1921 Page 84 - The Australasian Photographic Review

THE WHITE ENSIGN
Henri Mallard

And so I set out here my scant knowledge of the technical or craft side of pictorial photography. If I seem to labor its limitations, it is because I have an exceeding love of the craftsman, whether he builds a church or a chair, a picture or a palace. To make something that gives pleasure, something that is beautiful, is what matters most in life. Given a block of marble, a Rodin will chisel out of it beauty enough to draw crowds up the steps of the Luxembourg. Nearer home, give Norman Lindsay any old piece of zinc or copper and an etching needle and he’ll make prints that are everlastingly beautiful. It is such a platitude to say the material does not matter; it’s the soul and vision, the artist’s eye, the craftsman’s love of his work and the beauty that he evolves out of the agony of his labor that counts.

It has long been theme of argument whether photography is art. Most of it certainly is not and that side we are not concerned with, but in the present exhibition, the members of the The Sydney Camera Circle exhibit so many pictures that have all the elements of beauty about them that I think they are entitled to a Royal Commission in the matter at least.

One’s first impression on entering the Kodak Salon is a reminiscence of pages of the “Studio” number of etchings and engravings. The dominant memory of the exhibition is one of mezzotints and monochromes. Of photographs, as one sees them exhibited in show cases and photographers shops, there is no hint, except in a few cases, notably, “The Tower Bridge” and "Ferry Lane”. These are named because they fall a little into the commonplace in the rendering of them. The subject is the art of the picture, one feels that they have just been photographed. Both artists have in their groups many pictures better handled.

To define Art, to state a formula for guidance, is not easy. But all good Art must contain certain elements - Form, Composition or Pattern, color, Light and Shade. I do not include “subject”, because I really do not think subject in Art matters at all. The Venus of Milo has no history, but she must for all time be with us as beauty manifest. Frith R.A., was the arch-priest of subject in Art. I like to recall Whistler’s notation to Frith's confession in court that it was a toss-up whether he became an auctioneer or an artist. Whistler cheerily observes that Frith must have tossed up. There is nothing that Frith ever painted that matters, but Whistler, who was almost the first of painters to paint for beauty's sake and not for the story, has left an undying reputation. By subject I mean, of course, the grouping of figures merely to point a moral or adorn a tale. If figures come into the composition as part of the complete vision, well and good; but for the sake of all that’s holy, don’t try to force a cheap sentiment; don't drape a friend on a half-day off and call the result a Brigand or a Bacchante, or get maudlin and try to force a cheerful newsboy to look mournful for the sob’s sake. Art is only the making of beautiful things and things beautiful. Almost I think that to achieve Beauty is to define Art.

15th February 1921 Page 85 - The Australasian Photographic Review

ALONG THE DUSTY ROAD
Arthur Ford

And it is because I do believe that a good picture contains in accent those elements or qualities I have written above, that I stress them here and look for them always. Accent of form, accent of composition or pattern, accent of color, accent of light and shade, plus the artist’s spiritual quality of emotional vision.

It is in that spirit that I approach a review of the The Sydney Camera Circle pictures. It is because so many of these pictorial photographs contain the fundamental elements of a complete picture that I find the job a pleasant one.

Taking the artists as they come in the catalog, Mr. C.W. Bostock is first with a collection varied and uneven. One I have mentioned already and for amends find his “An Old World Harbour” very finely seen and handled. The interest is well sustained right through and subordinated ultimately to the center group of figures, delightfully unconscious (with one exception) in their posing and all very much alive and belonging to the picture. Bostock I regard as an impressionist — almost a Cubist in his arrangement of “My Lady Crinoline" — rather inclined to force a note out of value as in the high light on the water between the barges in No. 6 and the foreground in No. 11. But in his “Thatched Cottages” there is no forced effect, just a bit of sheer loveliness, fine in color and composition and detail. It’s packed with the quiet and haunting sweetness of rural England.

Mr. Charles Wakeford gets an interest right away with his “Beaching the Boat”. The figures are alert and moving, the composition well seen. "The Harvester” I found lacking in color and blurry. “The Breezy Hill Top” is better, but best of all that Mr. Wakeford shows is “The Brow of the Hill”. This is very complete and beautiful — one would never tire of this gem upon one’s wall.

Mr. J.E. Paton achieves a triumph of modeling and lighting in “Sentinels of the Wood”. Its light and shadow, the graceful trees, so finely handled, the mystery of the woods behind that are, I am sure, haunted by pixies and fairies when the lights go out, the imaginative quality in this little picture makes it one to have and keep always. “Farm Landscape” is in a treatment entirely different, but very satisfying and painter-like in its high key. No. 28 is badly balanced and No. 29 is another painter-like impression.

15th February 1921 Page 86 - The Australasian Photographic Review

THE EMPTY BARN
C.E. Wakeford

Mr. W.S. White shows an uneven collection. “The Gambler” fails because of the figure, posed and stiff. It’s a good picture spoilt to force a subject. The figure in No. 39 is just right, sprawling unconsciously; he fits the picture and the title. Could a simple, easy figure have happened into “The Shadow Hour” a more interesting picture would have resulted; as it is the composition and lighting are good. In “Cameo”, Mr. White almost rivals “Sentinels of the Wood”, but the latter to me seems to be carried further. In “The Japanese Umbrella" he strikes a decidedly individual and realistic note and then in another medium altogether achieves his best in “A Sun Splash”. This is a very satisfying study, big in feeling, rich in color, mysterious in its mezzotint-like shadows.

Mr. Webster’s exhibit is small. In “Where None Intrudes”, he handles a rather trite subject, but makes it interesting as a study in tone values. The pink color though is rather unpleasant. But he approaches the heights in “The Hermitage”. I doubt whether anything finer in color, in play of light and shade and mass and value is in the show. A painter would revel in that subject with a full palette, even as Mr. Webster has reveled in it. The The Sydney Camera Circle, with one exception, are landscape men. Mr. Monte Luke is the exception. His work falls into two groups; Portraits and Studies. Camera portraits in an exhibition must suffer a little in general interest in comparison with the wider flung landscape field. Time and the sitter are two factors that cannot be eliminated. The achievement of a successful portrait, either with the camera or the brush and a work of art as well, is exceedingly difficult. A visit to the National Gallery shows how rarely the thing is done. But Mr. Monte Luke makes good portraits and interesting pictures. I liked best his “Theatrical Manager”, amongst the portraits. It is frank and straightforward and arresting. Of his studies, "The Actor" (63) is the best; well arranged and easily posed, full of color, fine in balance. Given his model, Mr. Luke is equal to big things in figure work.

Mr. Mallard shows a delightful domestic subject in “Winbourne”. Here the figure has been introduced very successfully; she belongs. But it's in “Ruins” that he comes out big. Here is a complete collaboration of vision and craft. To have the eye to see No. 70 as he saw it, to have the gift to seize it and make it manifest, ranks Mr. Mallard very high indeed. His “Tar Boilers" is well seen, too, well balanced and interesting. No. 77 is also a fine study.

15th February 1921 Page 87 - The Australasian Photographic Review

THE SNAKE DANCE
Monte Luke

15th February 1921 Page 88 - The Australasian Photographic Review

SLOWLY O’ER THE LEA
C. Laseron

Mr. Ford handles big subjects in a big way. He likes masses and smoke, wharves and ships and horses pulling loads and yet he can be caught by a lovely poetic mood as in “Evening Sky”, a soft and sympathetic rendering of a moment’s mood. But it’s left to Mr. Ford to show the surprise of the exhibition — the altogether gay and clever "Surf Canoeing”. It’s as light and airy as a pencil sketch. And last and best, "A Bit of Old Sydney”. Its the most convincing and complete rendering of a street scene in the exhibition, very harmonious, good in detail and finely seen for its pattern of color patches.

Mr. E.N. Poole also strikes a gay note in “At the Fountain”. The children are alive. “Presage” is an honest, well observed landscape: but the “Argyle Cut” lacks an accented note in its sunlight and shadow; it looks diluted. “Bond Street” is much more satisfying. The “Farm Building” is a gem.

Mr. Laseron is rather given to tricky technique, hiding his subject in a mantle of his own fashioning. But in “Slowly O’er the Lea” his vision is clear and direct and the result only slightly depreciated by the placing of the cow on the right. He lifts his subject matter out of the commonplace in his fine rendering of the “Murk of the City”.

Mr. Eutrope comes last in the catalog. He is uneven; one feels that he is experimenting. His little "Shadow Romance”, Japanesque in its decorative feeling, gives a hint of what he can do and the hint comes to fulfilment in his wonderfully simple composition, "The Cloud Majestic”. Mr. Eutrope has achieved some thing very beautiful in this picture. It is perfectly balanced, rich in color, fine and broad in planes and values — altogether a picture to be proud of.

And so one closes the catalog and comes to a last look round and another visit to those pictures that have moved us most. As in Art, or as at an Art exhibition, no man seems to have made two or more of equal merit: one of his pictures goes further than his others — is more packed with quality: has more of the grace of vision.

Amongst such a feast of good things it is hard to select the best. My notes show more than a dozen; but the best half-dozen in the order of their numbers are: "The Brow of the Hill”, “Sentinels of the Wood”, "The Hermitage”, “The Actor, “Ruins” and "The Cloud Majestic”. Of them all. I’m tempted to choose the last as the most beautiful.

The The Sydney Camera Circle has 115 cataloged reasons for being proud. The artistic excellence of the members work suggests that the present sign is too modest: the name might be changed to the Camera Circle of Artists.

15th February 1921 Page 91 - The Australasian Photographic Review