Those selected by the judges have been placed in the exhibition, but the Council of the Society feel that it would be most unfortunate if the collection generally could not be viewed by the English public, and it is proposed that the bulk of the American and Canadian pictures, including those shown at the Annual Exhibition, should form one of our house exhibitions and be open to the public during the last part of January and the beginning of February, 1921.
J. McIntosh, Secretary
The Soft Focus Lens
“What changes in the past twenty years, Mr. White, would you say have been most noticeable in photographic work?”
“Well, I would say the most noticeable is what we call the use of the soft focus lens. Secondly, I would say another noticeable change is the better general quality [pg 7] of photographic work. I feel that the photographers of today have a better idea of picture construction.”
“Would you say that one of the changes in the past twenty years is in the spreading of a knowledge of pictorial photography throughout the country?”
“Very definitely so. The interest in pictorial photography twenty years ago was confined to a small group. There are now groups in various centers as large as the national group of the early days.”
No One Lens Is Sufficient
“Getting down to a practical question for a moment, Mr. White, do you recommend a soft focus lens for small cameras, the work to be enlarged with a sharp lens, or do you recommend the reverse process?”
“I still keep to my original statement that I made two or three years ago that I do not believe that any one lens will serve all purposes. I sometimes feel that an anastigmat lens is best and sometimes that a soft focus lens is best for some particular work, and sometimes I feel that if I could get only one I would prefer an anastigmat to a soft focus.”