Friday, October 23, 2009
The post about the winners of the World Nomads contest is here: http://journals.worldnomads.com/scholarships/post/36171.aspx
I'm not thrilled with the winning entry.
Since I didn’t even make it to the short list, in some ways I feel I’m not qualified to pass judgement on the winner’s portfolio. After all, without making the shortlist, I’m obviously not capable of knowing what a winning group of photos would look like… Yes, I know that’s not true, but I’m really good at the whole self-doubt thing.
I wasn’t going to comment about the winner at first, because I figured I didn’t like it just because I was bummed at not winning, but reading the comments I see I'm not the only one.
Here are the pictures from her entry. They can be seen larger at Flickr, and you can read the captions.
Go look. I'll wait.
Originally uploaded by black_booga
5. Yah Yah, my grandfather
Originally uploaded by black_booga
5. Yah Yah, my grandfather
Originally uploaded by black_booga
It is an excellent group of photos. They tell a story.
But I don't feel they convey what the contest was looking for.
From the contest info:
1. Shoot a series of photos (maximum of 5) that tell a story about a place you have visited. The judges will be looking for:
* originality
* ability to convey a story through photos
* excellent technique
* ability to convey a story through photos
* excellent technique
Series of no more than 5 photos? check
Tell a story? check
Originality? check
Ability to convey a story through photos? check
Excellent technique? check
About a place you have visited? Not so much.
She says her “place” is her grandparents house, but only 2 of the pictures even convey that place. The other 3 could have been taken anywhere. It is an excellent group of pictures, but it is about a person, not a place. Look at that kitchen in photo #2. That is an awesome picture. It is as much about the place as it is about her grandfather. The cupboard with the plastic (aluminum foil?) over it, the piles of tupperware, the light coming through the window. That picture makes me want to see the rest of their flat. The final picture, the one that is just a portrait, it doesn't tell me anything about that place. For all I can tell it wasn't necessarily even taken in the flat.
In comments about the judging, Jason Edwards said, “After I receive the list I have my assistant download all of the images and place them in folders without names attached. I then judge each of the entries not knowing who shot them, where they live, whether they are male or female, even their age. I do not allow myself to be influenced by anything other than the images.”
But he does have the captions. He knows she’ll be relatively young, because she’s shooting her grandparents. That probably wasn’t a big factor. But that first caption. They now know she is from Australia. In these tough economic times you can’t tell me that wasn’t at least a little consideration, the idea of not paying international airfare from halfway around the world.
I really think the 2nd place photographer had a strong set of photos, and it does feel like it’s about a place rather than a person. There are portraits there, but they add to the sense of place. Here’s a link to his set.
Some of the comments other people left on the World Nomads show that I’m not the only one who feels this way.
“...in this particular case I think that the winner is an unfair choice. This isn't sour grapes because I'm not a photographer and I didn't even enter. The brief was to tell a story about a place and I think the winner has primarily told a story about people, not a place. I don't see how her portrait shot tells a story about a place, it could have been shot anywhere. The judge previously commented that each photo should tell a story about a place, as well as the whole set together. I don't think the winner has done that. I think it's a very disappointing result for all those people that focused on the place, as the brief directed them to.”
“Yes, portraits were the best way to effectively choose a candidate to take to photograph wildlife and scenery in Antarctica. I was really hoping to see some excellent and creative travel photographers in the final three, but right now I just see portraits and some mildly decent images mixed in? Not sure if this was really done right, but that's not up to any of us. The entrants were instructed to focus on a place (we were restricted to a country) as this is a travel photography scholarship. We were told to look at last year's winners to see what he did that took him above the rest. I'm sure people actually followed those instructions. If we had been told to gather up 5 intimate portraits from inside a house and use that to explain why we would benefit the most from an amazing opportunity in Antarctica, I'm sure we would have.”
“Interesting that the first and second place are both from Australia and do not have, what I would call, particularly strong portfolio's.”
“yes, they do tell a story, a very nice story, but it is a story of people, of a couple, not of a place. yes, a home is a place, but it is not a story of their home, it is a story of the people. if it is a story of a home, then how does the portrait, photo 5, fit in? i know, i know, we could go on forever about how the people relate to the place...place/ people, people/ place, blah blah blah. sour grapes on my part. Congrats to the winner.”
“So they just wanted portraits basically?”
“Well, hasn't this been a learning experience. It's great to know that next time I want to win a travel photography competition and tell a story about a place I should take portrait photographs of my grandfather. How enlightening…”
I think the thing that disappoints me most about this is that I thought the fact that I’m not a portrait photographer wouldn’t be a factor here. The assignment was to shoot a place, and the prize was to go shoot at a place with no native human population. Yes, pictures of people can be an important element when shooting a place, but they aren’t always required, so I didn’t feel I needed to shoot somewhere with people.
Well, there are always other contests to enter. I’ll just keep trying.
