American painter Alice Pike Barney (1857–1931) stands before her easel, brushes in hand.

Alice Pike Barney (born Alice Pike; 1857–1931) was an American painter. She was active in Washington, D.C., and worked to make Washington into a center of the arts. Her two daughters were the writer and salon hostess Natalie Clifford Barney and the Baháʼí writer Laura Clifford Barney. -Wikipedia (2025) continues…

Virginia M. Prall: 1866-1951

The following article on Prall was published in the March, 1901 issue of The Photographic Times:

Miss Virginia M. Prall and her Work.
BY C. A. JOHNSON.

AMONG the new comers in the photographic field is Miss Virginia M. Prall, of Washington, D. C. Although Miss Prall is still an amateur, the rapid progress she has made gives promise of a brilliant future in the field which she has chosen.

Miss Prall’s first exhibit was at Pittsburgh after only two month’s experience with the camera; since then she has exhibited in Chicago and Philadelphia, always receiving very good criticisms. Ten of her pictures were included among those taken to the Paris Exposition by Miss Frances Benjamin Johnston in her collection of examples of work done by American women photographers.

When her experience began, something over a year ago, Miss Prall had never taken a snap shot with a camera, had never been to a photographic exhibition, nor had she seen a photographic magazine

Her experience began with a small camera which was sent to her on a wager that she could not make with it a group of family portraits without knowing something of the management of the light and the length of time to expose the films.”

“After a week’s experience,” says Miss Prall, “it was decided that I had won the wager, for I had not lost a film during that time and the portraits were considered good. The films were developed at a neighboring supply house, and on two occasions I went into the dark room to see them developed. After this I decided to do my own work, and purchased a Voigtländer Euryscope and King Camera and began to work the matter out according to my own ideas “

Miss Prall has proven that a perfectly equipped photographer’s studio is not necessary to do good work. All her work is done by the light of a small east window; the bathroom is utilized for developing, the light being shut out by hanging a red blanket over the window.

Miss Prall is too lately come into photography to judge her work from the same view-point as that of men and women of established reputation in the same field. There is to be found in her work an ingenious charm and artistic feeling; however it is not trained artistic feeling and runs to a prodigality of detail, resulting in a certain prettiness which is not compatible with the best art.

The crying need in photography today is artistic training; new possibilities are constantly being developed in the camera and in the wide range of material thus presented some standard of feeling, some fine sense of selection, is needed as a guide. A knowledge of composition, an appreciative feeling for color and line and what the Japanese call “Notan” are absolutely essential; and those who have done so much to make photography the fine art it is today, have been guided and inspired by the same laws which govern the greatest pictorial art of the world.

The excellent results obtained by Miss Prall during her brief experience are too good not to have the advantage of the best artistic training. With such training there is no reason why Miss Prall may not stand in the foremost ranks of the best women photographers to-day. (pp. 107-09)