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for drawing attention to photography’s aesthetic role and
affecting a shift within the industry toward art photo-
graphy. Ideas emanating from the landmark exhibition
established a model for a long string of salons that
admitted only art photography and excluded technical
and scientifi c work.
The rigorously juried international exhibition set a
higher standard that would be applied to subsequent
international and regional exhibitions. The consideration
of photography as an art form versus a scientifi c tool of
reportage prompted the formation of separate camera
organizations devoted solely to art photography. The
following year, in 1892, the Linked Ring was formed in
Great Britain. The Photo-Club de Paris began in 1894.
In America, Alfred Stieglitz followed the movement of
secession from traditional photography societies when
in 1902 he formed the Photo Secession group in New
York. Intrigued by the Trifolium’s identity, Stieglitz
arranged to present the three in America. Their work
came to stand for what most Americans would know
of Austrian Secession photography.
Margaret Denny
See also: Photographische Rundschau; Stieglitz,
Alfred; Watzek, Hans; Kühn, Heinrich; Brotherhood
of the Linked Ring; and Photo-Club de Paris.
Further Reading
An exhibition of One-Hundred Photographs by Heinrich Kühn,
Munich: Stefan Lennert, 1981.
Buerger, Janet E., The Last Decade: The Emergence of Art Pho-
tography in the 1890s, Rochester, NY: International Museum
of Photography at George Eastman House, 1984.
Naef, Weston J., The Collection of Alfred Stieglitz: Fifty Pioneers
of Modern Photography, New York: Metropolitan Museum
of Art, 1978.
VIEWING DEVICES
The origin of photographic viewing devices can be
traced to the eighteenth century, when a ‘show box,’ or
‘peep box’ was employed to enhance the sense of depth
within hand coloured engravings, thereby generating a
more realistic viewing experience. Such devices tended
to be of a basic construction where the viewer would
look with both eyes through a single glass lens built
into the front of a box which magnifi ed the image. A
similar effect was achieved using another eighteenth
century device known as the Zogroscope. This consisted
of an adjustable stand with a mirror and single large
lens attached. The engraving to be viewed was placed
upside down in front of the viewer. The Zogroscope
was then placed alongside the engraving. The engraving
would then appear refl ected in the mirror, through the
lens, the correct way up and hopefully with an added
sense of realism. How effective such devices were is
debatable, but the use of viewing devices, in one form
or another, continued with the advent of photography.
Early photograph collectors were often also collectors
of engravings, and some viewed their newly acquired
photographs in the same way they had always viewed
their engravings. Viewing devices therefore form a link
from the pre-history of photography through to the
advent of photography itself.
In time, viewing devices became more elaborate. In
1862 the photographer, Carlo Ponti (1823–1893) took
out a patent in England for his Alethoscope. This had a
single magnifying lens intended for the viewing of large
photographic prints showing architectural views of Italy.
Ponti’s imposing optical devices later came to be known
under a variety of names, including the Megalethoscope,
Dioramascope and Pontioscope. Ponti also made the
impossible claim that his devices were able to show
single photographs with a stereoscopic effect.
It is important to acknowledge the sheer variety of
viewing devices that were produced throughout the
nineteenth century, some of which were more successful
than others. For example, in the 1870s Francis Frith &
Co produced a series of large format photographs on col-
oured transparent paper. Entitled, Photoscopic Pictures,
these look, from their design, as if they were intended to
be viewed in a device similar to Ponti’s Megalethoscope,
but little mention is made of them nowadays.
At the opposite end of the scale are Stanhope view-
ers. Named after the English politician and scientist,
Charles, Earl of Stanhope (1753–1816), these viewing
devices can be found embedded in a wide range of small
novelty articles: from needle holders to letter openers.
They consist of microphotographs fi xed to the fl at end of
a tiny glass rod, while the other end of the rod is curved,
so that when the one peeps through the Stanhope viewer
the microphotograph appears much enlarged through
the convex lens at the other end.
In 1864 Charles Rowsell produced a device capable
of handling stereoscopic photographs as well as single
prints. The Graphoscope’s mainly wooden construction
comprised of a moulded rectangular plinth which sup-
ported a hinged platform which could be adjusted to
various angles to aid the viewing of images through ei-
ther a pair of inset stereo lenses, or a larger single double
convex lens glass. The double convex lens was said to
produce an illusion of relief, rather than a fully realised
stereo effect. In an advertisement for the photographic
supplier, P. Meagher from 1875 the Graphoscope is
described as a device ‘For viewing photographs, draw-
ings and stereoscopic pictures on glass or paper. By a
simple adjustment of the easel the instrument is readily
focused to suit any sight.”
Perhaps the most obvious example of a device
designed to generate a realistic viewing experience
is the stereoscopic viewing device, without which a