Photographic modernism on the margins: William Harding, The Camera and the Irish salons of photography, 1927 to 1939

ABSTRACT

This article examines the extent to which photographic modernism was embraced by the Irish amateur scene in the 1920s and 1930s. In particular, it looks at the annual photographic salons which were held in Dublin during the period, and considers the relationship between modernist techniques and the more painterly style known as “pictorialism”. The debates and tensions relating to these opposing styles of photography, as played out in the contemporary press, will be analysed. Particular attention is paid to The Camera, a Dublin magazine aimed at the amateur market. The article will also examine how technological advances impacted upon Irish photographic practice, and how class was an important factor in determining who participated in amateur photography. The article finishes with a consideration of the “Irishness” of Irish photography in the decades after Partition.

KEYWORDS:

• Photography
• photographic exhibitions
• pictoralism
• camera clubs
• modernism

Notes

1. “Striking Exhibit of Photographs – Visited by President”, Irish Independent, 20 September 1927, 8.

2. For biographical details see “Mr. William Harding”, Irish Times (29 June 1929), 7; and “The Irish Salon of Photography: Tribute to Late Director”, Irish Times (6 July 1929), 11.

3. “Irish Salon of Photography”, Evening Herald (28 July 1922), 4.

4. Ibid.

5. It should be noted that Orpen, although highly influential as a teacher and a role model for Irish artists, did not live in the country after 1915. Catherine Marshall states that in his autobiography, Stories of Old Ireland and Myself (1924), he displays a fondness for his native land (“William Orpen”, 336).

6. “Civic Week – Irish Salon of Photography”, Evening Herald (20 September 1927), 2.

7. “Irish Salon Triumph,” The Camera 7, no. 3 (October 1927), 117–24.

8. “The Irish Salon of Photography – Dinner by the Director and Committee,” The Camera 7, no. 4 (November, 1927), 191–2.

9. “Irish Salon Triumph,” The Camera 7, no. 3 (October 1927), 119.

10. Merne, Photographic Society of Ireland.

11. Seiberling, Amateurs, Photography, and the Mid-Victorian Imagination, 2.

12. Carville, “Photography, Tourism and Natural History.”

13. Mauro, “Deviations from the Norm,” 12.

14. Ibid.

15. “Irish Salon of Photography: Picking Out Counties,” Irish Independent (1 November 1933), 11.

16. The Camera and Amateur Cinematographer for the Advancement of Photography (August 1930), Vol. X, no. 1, 36.

17. Cusack, “A ‘Countryside Bright with Cosy Homesteads,’” 221.

18. Ibid., 222.

19. Ibid., 227.

20. “From Every Country – Exhibits at the Irish Salon of Photography”, Irish Press (29 October 1931), 4.

21. Bureau of Military History, 1913–1921, Statement by Witness, Document No. W.S. 1214, Witness James J. O’Connor, 27/07/1955.

22. “Striking Exhibit of Photographs – Visited by President”, Irish Independent (22 September 1927), 8.

23. “Visit the Sixth Irish Salon of Photography”, Evening Herald (2 November 1937), 6.

24. Chlumsky, “Frantisek Drtikol,” 418.

25. Ibid.

26. McCarroll Cutshaw, California Dreamin', 11.

27. Ibid., 10.

28. Dawson, “Folio Three,” 210.

29. Johnston, “From Headquarters,” The Camera 10, no. 67 (February 1931), 343.

30. Gernsheim, Creative Photography, 178.

31. “‘Touchwood’, Juniors’ Prints – Commentaries,” The Camera 11, no. 12 (July 1932), 587.

32. “Das Deutsche Lichtbild,” The Camera 7, 6 (January 1928), 305.

33. Ross, Photography for Everyone, 165.

34. Edwin Redslob, (trans. Una Wolfe), “Photography and Art,” The Camera (February 1928) 7, no. 7, 363.

35. “Reviews – German Photography,” The Camera 7, no. 6 (January 1928), 305.

36. Zanot, “The Film und Foto Exhibition of 1929,” 129.

37. Wills, History of Photography, 90.

38. Brooker and Thacker, “Introduction,” 6.

39. For a more detailed discussion of modernist painting in Ireland see Kennedy “Art and Uncertainty”.