As often I caricature to make a point:
<< >There are some people in the UK who occasionally seem to regard this
as a UK-led movement spearheaded by the RPS. >>
You will be as aware as I that certain people in the UK seem blissfully
unaware of photography outside the UK (and I'm even more sure that that
is true of some other countries). We've talked before of a certain
amount of re-inventing the wheel (often badly) that goes on here as a
result of this. Some of the experiences I've had with RPS members at
workshops and so on in this respect have been unbelievable - I didn't
mean to knock the RPS but it does seem to attract some odd people.
As you say it has a very fine collection and it was certainly an
exciting experience to go and handle some of it and compare it with the
work we were producing. I think Pam will also have learned a little from
us about what it was they actually had in some cases. Certainly as
interesting - at least to me - as the secessionist work is the
collection of earlier photography for example by Fenton. As you know the
RPS as a whole has not always appreciated the worth of its collection.
Peter