a request for help

[smokysun]

since i started as a journalist in high school, do photos in a series, and enjoy history, i'd like the enter the leica barnack contest (turns out you can use any camera).

for the past two days i've gone through my 2009 photos and have come up with six themes, which i've posted on my site.

www.pbase.com/wwp/entry1
www.pbase.com/wwp/entry2
www.pbase.com/wwp/entry3
www.pbase.com/wwp/entry4
www.pbase.com/wwp/entry5
www.pbase.com/www/entry6


i'd first of all like to know which theme has a chance of winning (i like them all). this contest for photojournalism, so it has to have social content. look at past winners and see what i mean.

http://www.leica-oskar-barnack-award.com/#/en/home

they don't always go for top-heavy political emphasis. each theme i've chosen backed up by dozens of photos, so these particalur ones don't have to be the final choice. i would like curator evaluations of what might be strongest, given the requirements.

thanks much for your insight.

wayne
www.pbase.com/wwp

 

[s.agar]

Hi Wayne,

Gallery 6 is not working. Can you check that?

Seyhun

 

[Oxide Blu]

Wayne -- of what I can see I like gallery 4 the best, but as Seyhun mentioned, gallery 6 is not accessible.

 

[Streetshooter]

Gallery 6 still down....

Wayne, you stated that you'd like curating help. There is not enough images in each gallery to really do it.
You have already made your selections and groupings.
Please explain. It appears you just want an opinion on your selections.

You know me Bro...... Let's do it!

 

[pollobarca]

Wayne will this rule apply?

the photos I am entering are neither photomontage nor have been manipulated by digital or other means,

How much manipulation can you have. After all nearly everybody does some now.

BTW I like the Actors and galleries 4 and 5.

 

[m3photo]

Re: What is Photographic Reality?

... the photos I am entering are neither photomontage nor have been manipulated by digital or other means.

How much manipulation can you have. After all nearly everybody does some now.

This article by Peter Eastway shines a light on this subject:
"What is Photographic Reality?"

Click on:
http://www.scottkelby.com/

and scroll down to Jan 27.

 

[jlm]

1 has plenty of grit and edge, the rest are pretty mild and pastoral

 

[smokysun]

thanks much for the comments. number 6 should be www.pbase.com/wwp/entry6

osman, your question very much to the point. looking through the entries, you see all levels of manipulation. if you look at the winners, they've very typical photographic techniques. i have two books by them.

http://www.amazon.com/Winterreise-L...r_1_13?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1264879284&sr=8-13

i can't find the other one, but they were very blurred colored pictures of cuba with one point of sharp focus.

the luc delahaye a very good book, but how he could have chosen ten of them and won, i don't know. salgado has won twice. not exactly an unknown.

http://www.leica-oskar-barnack-award.com/#/en/contest/winners-1979-2002

when i first looked at the present entries, james nachtwey came up first! that's pretty stiff competition.

don, comment on the choices welcome, however i could make others in the same series that might be better. these come out of those posted on my site. i should give those urls as a reference. i will at the end. i'm trying to narrow it down to which has the style and story which might surprise them. if i get it narrowed down to one series, i can go back and work on the photos. maybe eliminate some of the objections.

jlm, yes, the first more in the style you'd expect them to want (and i like them myself). and i agree with the pastoral nature of the others. however, as i said above, i think surprise might be the best choice in this situation. i do know the first photo has to catch their attention. literally thousands of entries.

(and i expect suspected manipulation will immediately eliminate you. many of mine taken with infrared modified cameras. so they tend to look much more manipulated than they actually are.)

here are the original series. i really appreciate your attention. as you know, family and friends can't be trusted!

1. http://www.pbase.com/wwp/inish2

2. http://www.pbase.com/wwp/childhood2

3. http://www.pbase.com/wwp/thurs

4. http://www.pbase.com/wwp/tub

5. http://www.pbase.com/wwp/childhood

6. http://www.pbase.com/wwp/memory

the entries have to be from last year. i could have made other choices. however, these seemed to have story potential. something they'll certainly look for.

wayne
www.pbase.com/wwp

 

[smokysun]

ps. the peter eastway article much to the point. and i do think our image of what photos can be changing. alas, journalism keeps pretending to objectivity! has that ever really been true? here's the eastway again. thanks for the tip.

http://www.scottkelby.com/blog/2010/archives/7617

 

[otumay]

Wayne, I did not have the time to check your links yet, so I was surprised to see my name in your answer, I think it is Paul who wrote about manipulation.
I shall check your photos as soon as I can, my friend.
Best,
Osman

 

[smokysun]

osman, sorry i got mixed up. thanks, paul.

 

[smokysun]

i've been doing more looking, and i realized the winners all show a form of community, usually a rather kind view. (nachtwey's of world tuberculosis may be too brutal for them. i could only look at a couple. he really does it, the opposite of michaelangelo who couldn't bear to see or portray a mutilated body.)

here's the prize announcement:

An international jury awards the Leica Oskar Barnack Award / Leica Oskar Barnack Newcomer Award to photographers whose unerring powers of observation capture and express the relationship between man and the environment in the most graphic form in a sequence of a minimum of 10 up to a maximum of 12 images. Entry submissions must be a self-contained series of images in which the photographer perceives and documents the interaction between man and the environment with acute vision and contemporary visual style – creative, groundbreaking and unintrusive.

as for manipulation, it's interesting. the last winner's photos straight up, often with a flash, close to snapshots. the brazil winner created beautiful window shots, and i'm sure he posed the people. and "contemporary visual style - creative, groundbreaking" should include 3d and hdr.

looking at these and a lot more entries, it's easy to see where the winner comes down to an arbitrary decision. many, many photographers could win. like all contests it comes down to the judges not being embarassed by their choice!

still, it's fun to speculate. and the final judge has to be yourself. more comments gladly invited. next to ourselves, fellow practitioners matter the most.

wayne
www.pbase.com/wwp

 

[smokysun]

here's a wise note a friend sent. more food for thought.

wayne
www.pbase.com/wwp

Hey, Wayne! About time you try getting into a larger universe with your photography!

I would send entry 2, myself, since it really holds together best as a sort of narrative on a single experience, and it most definitely of all entries fits the relationship to environment in a charming and dramatic way (without being too obviously staged, as the Blue Room shots of entry 1 seem to be.)

I did find a number of past winners on various sites, and most of them do seem to be strongly political in their social commentary, and I hope that doesn't hold sway against your entry.

But I do wonder, one of the rules seems to imply that none of your entries will meet a basic, stated requirement:

"PHOTO EDITING: The photos entered should neither be photomontage nor have been manipulated by digital or other means".

I could write an entire essay on how that rule is either 1) badly worded and poorly thought out, since any developing or processing of the image "taken" by a camera is, in fact being "manipulated" when it is printed, and how on earth does one avoid that rule; or, 2) it is so completely exclusionary, that if that requirement were to be applied to all photography, I can't think of a single photographer in the history of the art who would have been able to have their work accepted.

But in any case, good luck.

Randy

 

[D upton-Hackett.]

wayne.
I feel unqualified to make a judgement, hope you understand. At the same time wish you Luck with your entry.

Derek.

 

[pollobarca]

Wayne,
dont worry about that rule, it can only be applied when the judges want to have an excuse for bumping someone or if there is too much manipulation that actually changes the facts,
like giving someone bigger tits etc.
all the best and GOOD LUCK!

paul

ps still like the actors gallery

 

[s.agar]

Good to have the Gallery 6.
It was more appealing to me, but may not be the best choice regarding the subject of this contest.

 

[HansM]

Hi Wayne,
really nice to see this selection of your past year's photo's - with or without good old Oskar Barnack. I enjoyed them all. As to your question, it seems obvious to me that the Leica-jury will go by what I call (in want of a better definition) the rules of photo-journalism, as they are formulated in different ways by different media - from newspapers up to the National Geographic. Of course the photographer is allowed to make choices, leave his/her mark and so on, but the integrity of the subject should remain intact, and the viewer should not see something that is decidedly not true. Put this way, I don't think it is an unfair demand. As for the Peter Eastway video (but this is a matter of personal taste) I dislike the way he manages to turn almost every picture into some sort of Disneyland landscape, and I feel my sensitivity as a viewer is underestimated by this display of (in my perception) visual muscle power.
IMHO your first series (the actors) would be your best bet, with Sunday on the river as a close second - but only because I have not the faintest idea of the jury's appreciation of infrared pictures. If they do appreciate them, I would say Sunday on the river would be your best choice by a long chalk. But that is only me speaking - thankfully I have a strong impression that you are very much your own man, or I wouldn't have dared to say anything it all. (Krishnamurti: 'Why do we compare?')
Very curious as to what your entry is going to be, and wishing you good luck,

Hans

 

[Streetshooter]

Wayne, My opinion for what's its worth.
You come thru the most in Gallery 1.

The others seem like I'm seeing what your seeing but in #1, I'm seeing more of you internally. Certainly more interesting to the viewer.

 

[Oxide Blu]

... really nice to see this selection of your past year's photo's - with or without good old Oskar Barnack. I enjoyed them all.

One great big, fat, hairy ditto to that!!!

Wayne, whether you do Oskar or not, your pix are already winners right here! :thumbs:

 

[smokysun]

thanks, everybody.

hans, your points well-taken. i do suspect the infrared will get rejected, even though i agree with you on the river shots in terms of 'man and his environment'.

oxide blu, you've made my day, as have derek and s.agar!

don, i think you may be right, though it's a shame i didn't take them with a small sensor camera but the 5d. i also have a rational for them. to see the actors getting ready and to see the contrast in action. everybody from the president on down seems to be dressing for a part. and it's really affecting the environment in which we live.

paul, i'm sure you'll be okay. they seem to pretty much take the magnum style book, and this a great collection:

http://www.amazon.com/Magnum-Brigit...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1264997699&sr=8-1

and i have posed the question on infrared at the leica forum. no response yet. i'll let you know if anything comes of it.

thanks again, everyone. #1 will probably be the choice. i'll let you know for sure. we have until march 15th. i hope this will encourage everyone to enter. everybody here's a pro.

wayne
www.pbase.com/wwp