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EPS
1955
Open Exhibition
The
exhibition was held during the Edinburgh Festival. The exhibition
opened in August 1955, at YMCA Exhibition Hall, 4 Queen Street,
Judges
comments
"The
quality of acceptances the visitors can judge for themselves.
What of those which were discarded?
Generally it may be said that while of course prints of poor
technical quality were ruthlessly excluded a large number of technically
perfect prints went out for no other reason than that they were barren of
ideas or far too often merely copies of previous exhibition successes.
It needs only some original and competent worker to produce a new
idea or a new treatment of an old subject, particularly if it has a dramatic
impact, for dozens of other photographers to send in copies on the
assumption that this is the kind of thing judges like!"
For
many years, the EPS Exhibition was described as an Exhibition of
Pictorial Photography. Here is how the judges saw it:
"Then
again, many entries, particularly from abroad, could be classified rather as
photo-journalism in which print quality, general technique and composition
were all sacrificed in order to record some particular incident of a
startling nature. Such
pictures, of course have their place and play an important part in recording
our daily lives, and are the raw material of a great deal of today’s
illustrated journalism, but in no way can they be classified as pictorial
photography. Whether or not the
selectors were right in excluding such pictures from this exhibition is a
decision they are quite happy to leave in the hands of the visitors, who we
feel will appreciate the quieter, more satisfying, and more lasting beauty
of the display they have before them." |