The Kodak Kiosk at the Royal Show, C.1909
The Kodak Kiosk at the Royal Show, Melbourne. Nothing perhaps indicates more clearly the appreciation of the general public of the practical benefits that may be derived from photography than the keen interest displayed by the farming community in the Kodak stand at the Royal Show, Melbourne. The establishment of the Kodak Kiosk was an innovation, not to say an experiment, which justified it self the first day of the Show. The keenest interest was taken in the whole process of Kodak Photography—from the putting in of the film to the method of enlargement—not by city visitors so much as by the farmer and stock-owner. The fine enlargements on the wall of the Kiosk, most of them depicting country life, took his fancy at once. He did not look at them as a connoisseur looks at pictures, for composition, form, atmosphere, and beauty, but he passed criticisms—keen and trenchant, but on the whole kindly—on the subjects of the pictures. He saw a team of fine horses, a beautiful mob of sheep, a team of bullocks, a plough making a straight furrow, and a handsome ram, all depicted so clearly that the points, good and bad, of every animal were obvious to the initiated eye. It didn’t need much explanation to make him see the practical advantages of the Kodak. To show a horse to a prospective buyer is the best way of selling him, but failing the opportunity of showing him, a good picture is a first class substitute, and every man in the country has at some time or other some kind of stock to sell. Consequently once the enlargements on the wall were seen there were any number of keen farmers and stock-owners eager to see just how it was done, and the attendants who were in charge of the Kiosk were kept busy explaining, developing, and printing. At certain times of every day it was impossible to get into the Kiosk, but the pressure was relieved by the decoying those inside to the back of the Kiosk to have their photographs taken in groups. The interest taken in the development of these particular pictures was keen and personal. Altogether, as intimated, the exhibit convinced people that Kodak photography can be used not only for the making of pretty pictures, and the securing of charming effects, but for purely business purposes. The feeling hitherto in the minds of many country people was that whilst the results could be used profitably, the trouble of obtaining these results was too great. The simplicity of Kodak methods, the abolition of the dark room, the little outlay required are so obvious when ocular demonstration is given, that no wonder a great number of people were converted to Kodak methods, and went away with a determination to immediately put into practical and profitable use the lessons they had so quickly and easily learned.