William J. Mullins
American,
(1860–1917)
William Mullins, of Franklin, Pennsylvania, was a minor member of the Photo-Secession group. He was included in the Philadelphia Photographic Salon at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1898, the first exhibition of photography in America held at a recognized fine arts institution. Juried by two painters and three photographers, including Alfred Stieglitz, the show was the first to exhibit photographs solely for their artistic merit, completely abandoning specific categories such as genre, landscape, or portraiture. Mullins's work appeared in the October 1901 issue of "Camera Notes," but his greatest public achievement was the display of twelve of his photographs in the International Exhibition of Pictorial Photography, at the Albright Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York, in 1910.