Manx Sunset

The Chicago Art Institute is proud that its annual exhibition not only has what is reputed to be the largest, most elaborate opening in the world, but also that it pays its prizewinners the richest rewards in the U. S.: $7,500. Last week U. S. museum directors were startled to learn how an amateur with a pocket camera could win $16,500 in art prizes by one snap of his shutter.

Until a few weeks ago Charles Powell of East Didsbury, Manchester, was a worker in a British cotton mill. In his spare time Charles Powell of East Dids-bury likes to take pictures. This summer he went on vacation with his pretty tousle-haired fiancee to the Isle of Man. He took her picture sitting on a rock against the sunset with a cheap Kodak she had given him for a birthday present. The picture seemed very good. He enlarged it and sent it to the International Kodak Exhibition at Geneva, a contest for which the various European and U. S. subsidiaries of the U. S. Eastman Kodak Co. had contributed over $100,000 in prizes. Rules: 1) Competitors must be amateurs in fact; no member of their families could be professional photographers. 2) Pictures must be taken during the four months of the contest. 3) Any camera or photographic material could be used. 4) Pictures could be no larger than eight inches square, none could be colored. Nearly 3,000,000 pictures were submitted. Finals narrowed down to 282 entries from 47 countries. Cotton Worker Powell won the British national prize of $5,000 and an additional class award of $500. He also won the grand prize of $10,000 and a cash award of $1,000. Beside the money he was given a gold medal and a silver statue of a female figure, draped, holding aloft an actual photographic lens.

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