Stieglitz countered this move by trying to get some of the best known photographers of Europe to join him as part of a united front. He traveled to London to meet with some of the founders of the important photographic group The Linked Ring, including J. Crag Annan, Frederick H. Evans, Alvin Langdon Coburn and Alfred Horley Hinton. He was hoping to convince them to start a chapter of the Linked Ring in the United States, which he would direct. He also met with playwright George Bernard Shaw, who was an avid amateur photographer, about ways to promote photography as an art form. Unfortunately Stieglitz took ill before any of these conversations led to anything, and he had to return home. He was tired, frustrated and seeking a definitive new way to carry out his mission of promoting photography for photography's sake – independent of any other art form.