does not take away from them their rightful place when they are used by
competent hands for aesthetic purposes. The increasing number of museums
that are opening their exhibition halls to good photography is an evidence
that is obvious to all observers. Caustic critics like Joseph Pennell may
decry photography, but many able artists and critics, attending
exhibitions of photography that are being held in many of our centers of
art, are having their eyes opened to the beauty of lens work in the hands
of men and women who use the camera with feeling and insight. Then, too,
we must not forget the fact that some well-known artists, beginning with
D. O. Hill and continuing with Mrs. Kasebier, Frank Eugene, Steichen, and
others, have found in the practice of photography a more lasting fame than
in any other line of their effort.

Among notable exhibitions of the past year several should be mentioned. Of
course there are what might be called the historic exhibitions that have
won an established place, like the London Salon, the Royal Photographic
Exhibition, the Pittsburgh Salon, the Los Angeles Salon, the Portland
Exhibition, and others. More recently established exhibitions that are to
be noted are those of the San Francisco Pictorialists, the Oakland Salon,
the Canadian National at Toronto, the Buffalo Salon, and that of the
Pictorial Photographers of America at the opening of the Art Center in New
York City. At many of these exhibitions pictures from the same exhibitors
were hung, and as the judges at practically all of them were different men
(and women), including professional artists, it is evident that there was
a consensus among the competent critics that these exhibitors at least are
doing worthy work. But in that fact there is no cause for discouragement
to the novice, for new names are to be found in the catalogues of all the
exhibitions, and there is no league to keep out any individual's pictures
anywhere. That is one of the triumphs of our art--that, while judges may
sometimes err and exclude a good picture or select a poor one, there is a
general open-mindedness in recognizing merit wherever it exists. A
well-known worker is pretty sure to have his photographs declined by the
judges in most of the photographic exhibitions if he falls below his
standard, and, on the other hand, a gifted beginner will quickly get a
place in the seats of the mighty if he can produce the photographs that
entitle him to disti