an interesting editorial on the state of photography today

[Brian Ellis]

I sat through a 3 hour slide show on a 15" laptop that showed the "photographer" and all the places they saw and all the people they met and all the beaches and all the bars and all the airports they saw on a 2 month trip. Seriously, there was no editing at all. After 2 hours they said "we're almost done" and it went on for another hour and another 100-200 inane, uninteresting pixographs. . . .

Sounds like the days of the Kodak Carousel and 35mm slide film, when people took a vacation, shot rolls and rolls of film, then invited their enemies over for an evening of mindless gazing at hundreds of inane, uninteresting, grainographs.

[Brian Ellis]

The article indeed tells it like it is, and the judges deserve recognition for being brave enough to draw an important line. It is very high time to unmask and reject the “incredible surge in mediocrity” referrred to by Conrad Habing in the article that pervades so much photography and other arts in contemporary culture.

Perhaps but how come the "incredible surge in mediocrity" wasn't unmasked and rejected a long time ago? It's not like most photographs were masterpieces until digital came along and ruined everything.

[bob carnie]

Yes agree that ship sailed away long before digital.

Perhaps but how come the "incredible surge in mediocrity" wasn't unmasked and rejected a long time ago? It's not like most photographs were masterpieces until digital came along and ruined everything.

[Doug Howk]

One reason it took so long to unmask the mediocrity was that digital proponents kept saying "but that will be fixed in the next iteration". Their crap kept getting a free pass. Glad to see that the judges had the cajones to reject them all.

[Peter Mounier]

I think it's important to note here that nobody said the photos were mediocre or bad. What was said was that the stories, told through photographs were bad.

Our jury gazed upon any number of beautiful images: astonishing pictures of the aurora borealis, climbers in Peru, mountains in China, of bears and bobcats and birds both here and abroad. We saw technically brilliant photographs, superbly (or, more often, overly) Photoshopped. But none of them managed to tell the simplest of stories.

What was said was, they didn't tell a story. And that's what's different than other photo contests. If the story is paramount, they should put more emphasis on telling a story through photographs. But if they are holding a photo contest, they should award the people who submit the best photographs.

In other words, the best photographic sequences taken by amateur and professional wilderness photographers alike had no perceptible story, and therefore no significance.

... as a story.

[tgtaylor]

While the criteria was to tell a story, keep in mind that not all photography is story telling in approach.

I photograph things to see what things look like photographed.
- Garry Winogrand

Thomas

[Wayne]

Sounds like the days of the Kodak Carousel and 35mm slide film, when people took a vacation, shot rolls and rolls of film, then invited their enemies over for an evening of mindless gazing at hundreds of inane, uninteresting, grainographs.

You must have had a more unhappy childhood than me. ;-)

[Jerry Bodine]

That could have been said in about three paragraphs.

+1. Throughout this article, I couldn't help thinking: blah, blah, blah !

As for my personal opinions ..... sigh! .... I hardly know where to begin.

I would never have even considered contributing to such a competition, for reasons that will become obvious. The author is a journalist. They make their living writing stories. Stories are their mindset. Many come from a "back East" environment of wall-to-wall people - forgive them for that's all they know. I was one of them as well (couldn't wait to escape) to the "out West" which was like a breath of fresh air and open space.

Statements that jumped off the monitor at me (emphases are mine):

"Good pictures that tell a story are always about other people."

A story is a cohesive account of events in which something is at stake – a beginning, middle and end tied together with characters, ...

Sorry, folks. I'm not anti-social but I simply do not want any people in my landscape work. They detract from my "story."

"If you’re photographing to share an image, you’re not photographing to keep it.” - Whaaat? Run that by me again.

"... vision being “a point of view that says something about yourself.” - No, I'm not a narcissist. I just want to share the good feelings I experienced beholding all the unpopulated beauty in the world, even if it's just kept and hangs on my wall for me and others to enjoy.

"It’s the struggle that makes visual work interesting." - I'm certain nobody wants to hear about how tough it was for me to create my image on paper. This is journalism again. Ever notice how they concentrate on negative news, disasters, people crying and emotionally upset, the human condition, etc., etc. The reason bad news sells is because it makes the recipient happy it's not happening to him/her.

There, I'm feeling better now - blah, blah, blah ! Wait, maybe I should take up journalism and try their shoes ... naaa, forget it.

[Bill L.]

I think it's important to note here that nobody said the photos were mediocre or bad. What was said was that the stories, told through photographs were bad.



What was said was, they didn't tell a story. And that's what's different than other photo contests. If the story is paramount, they should put more emphasis on telling a story through photographs. But if they are holding a photo contest, they should award the people who submit the best photographs.



... as a story.

Assuming that this is the entry form:

http://www.banffcentre.ca/mountainfe...egulations.pdf

Telling a story is not the only option. From the entry form:

*“A photo- ssay (or photographic essay) is a set or series of photographs that are intended to tell a story or evoke emotions in the
viewer. Photo essays can be sequential in nature, intended to be viewed in a particular order, or they may consist of non-ordered
photographs which may be viewed all at once or in an order chosen by the viewer to reveal their character and
dynamics.”

Many landscape and wildlife photos can evoke an emotion without telling a story with a human element. I worry about a competition where the judges don't follow the competition's criteria. Especially when there is presumably an entry fee, and they aren't awarding the promised cash awards.

[Michael E]

Sounds like the days of the Kodak Carousel and 35mm slide film

Remember the sigh of relief when finally the projector's bulb broke?

I have to agree, much of the distress of mediocrity came long before digital technology. The article sings the song of the good old times more loud than well. "People aren’t photographing for history any more." Oh, please! Photos gain historical value in retrospect, not because somebody intended them to (with few exceptions). In 100 years, there will be a solid photographic documentation of our time. Sure, it's more work to select the good images from the indifferent ones. But there will be a lot of good material to choose from.

"But he fears that his granddaughters won’t have any memorable photographs of their own children: They will be lost in the technological deluge." On my mother's first photo, she was 6 years old. Her parents didn't own a camera. Of my own first years, there are two photo albums. My son's photos are digital, and there are thousands of them. Each year I assemble a photo book with about 100 of the best images of him. They tell stories, they show him laughing, crying, eating, sleeping, growing up. "Technological deluge"? Nope.

I haven't seen the entries of said competition and don't want to judge. But I work part time for an art academy, and I see the young folks come up with great images. Please, let us not chime in the chorus of "all the good music stopped in the seventies". Like the article said, there are photographers out there turning out great work. Some even use digital cameras :-)

On a side note: I saw an interesting, uncredited remark about the state of photography in a german commerce magazine. One image showed an astronaut with a Hasselblad: "Went to the moon, took 5 photos". The other image showed a young woman with a phone in front a mirror: "Went to the bathroom, took 38 photos".

Michael