News

Rant Archive

The Ones We Love
Davin — December 15th, 2007

Photo by Chrischa OswaldLindley Warren recently launched a new project called The Ones We Love.

“The Ones We Love is a project highlighting young and talented photographers from around the world. Each artist contributed six photographs of the person who is most important to them, taken outdoors in a natural setting. The goal of the website is to portray the people who are loved, cherished, and inspirational to these artists, and also showcase the differences and similarities in the photographs each of them took within the same guidelines.” — theoneswelove.org

As an aside, it’s interesting to see the number of projects appearing with a focus on young and emerging photographers. It’s a good thing to happen of course but I had this experience yesterday that made me think about the emphasis on youth when it comes to judging someone’s emerging status.

I consider myself an emerging photographer. Despite being 38 years old and graduating from university in 1994, i only picked up a camera in earnest about 3 years ago. Yesterday I noticed that the Canadian foundation, Magenta Publishing for the Arts had opened online submissions for Flash Forward 2008 their emerging photographers exchange. The project results in an annual hardcover book featuring Canadian, US, and UK photographers. I had resolved that I would get my shit togther and submit the ten photos required this year after quickly looking at the submission page. I pulled together my ten low res shots fairly easily but when I went back to read the details of what I had to do next I noticed that “emerging” means quite specifically “under 34″ to Magenta. I was a bit put off by that and emailed them to see if I could get some clarification on their reasoning for setting an age limit.

So, are emerging and young the same thing? And if so, why?

Posted in People, Rant, Websites — 4 Comments
Sour grapes, cronyism, and pep
Davin — November 30th, 2007

Portland, OR photographer Shawn Records (website with fancy dots here) has recently started blogging and had a couple of con-joined posts on dealing with the mixed bag of feelings surrounding juried exhibitions and form letter laden rejection of all sorts: pep talk / sour grapes and cronyism… two from the home team

I’ve bounced similar thoughts around about the validity of juried shows and other pay-for-play opportunities to get work in front of what one hopes will be an influential set of eyeballs. I’ve wondered about the possible closed-loop of relationships that may effect decisions in these cases while never really putting my own work out there because of my own mixture of sour grapes and self deprecation. It’s easy to believe in corrupt systems that serve to line some person or corporation’s pockets but it’s maybe just as easy to take a look at the great work that is included in many juried shows and emerging annuals — great work chosen by people who are dedicating unpaid time for the most part to someone else’s work.

Shawn takes this latter approach in his recent posts. He recognizes his own misgivings and flips them into something more positive.

Posted in People, Rant, Websites — Comment
The Blow Up
Davin — September 19th, 2007

Dear Photographers of the Internet,
Your site does not – I repeat, DOES NOT – need to expand to the full size of my screen for me to appreciate your photos. Kind Regards — Davin

Posted in Rant — 3 Comments