“Many persons would like to know, Mr. White, what are the criteria used by advanced workers like yourself in judging a photograph. Do you allow so many points for composition, for technique, for originality of conception, or for success in a difficult medium? Or do you say, ‘That picture pleases me, and I vote for it,’ without attempting to state in mathematical form the qualities of its success as a picture?”

“I would say that the first thing a man should do in judging pictures is to answer the appeal of the picture. I think a picture should have a message—that is, it should [pg 10] convey, not necessarily a story, but something of the feeling of the man who produced it. This is really a difficult question to answer. I would say, ‘That picture pleases me and I vote for it.’ That is to say, so many points for technique and so many points for pictorial quality would mean nothing to me. I would insist that a picture have an appeal, and then that it have good construction, and it should have quality. The printing medium, as I have said, doesn't make the picture, but the man who uses it.”