[philbaum]

A local co-op gallery has sponsors a yearly statewide art contest for 3 categories: photography, 2 D media (basically paintings), and 3-d art (basically sculptures)

The jurist they hire is either a painter or a sculptor, not a photographer for the last two years. (in addition, i've entered a juried art contest in another part of the state, again, the jurist was not a photographer)

I've just arrived home from the latest awards ceremony in which the 3 photographs selected for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place were all conventional photographs, one was so conventional that its almost a standard snapshot for any tourist that visits the Pacific coast. Pretty boring.

The picture that i had accepted by the gallery (of 700 art items submitted, the jurist accepted only 129 of them) was blended from 3 photos, but had such minor hdr influence, that few photographers recognize it. I don't deny it but i don't advertise it. The picture was selected as picture of the 2010 year by a 70 member photo club and has been sold 3 times last year. I saw some processed photos in the 34 that were selected for the contest, that were as good as mine or perhaps better. yet none of these superlative images were selected for awards.

My conclusion is that most of the scholarly jurists selected for gallery art contests, have no idea what to do with more digitally processed pictures. When one thinks about it, artists who paint and those who sculpt are relatively free of the heavy digital technology that now exists in the photography world. I don't think they "get" or understand the modern photography world at all. Their reaction is a conservative one, which is often not to select heavily digitally processed photographs for awards, as i saw tonight.

The 3 juried contests i've participated in for the last 2 years have convinced me not to submit any more "heavily" digitized images for such contests. The creativity that one often sees accepted in paintings and sculpture, is just not extended to photography by jurists, from what i've seen.

Am i misinterpreting my experiences or have others seen some bias on the part of non-photography jurists towards the more processed photographs?

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Last edited by philbaum; 02-06-2011 at 12:27 AM.

[Mike Cash]

When even photography nuts can't reach a consensus on whether digital post-processing constitutes "cheating" or at what point processing crosses the line between acceptable and "cheating", I think we have to allow for the possibility that people from the realms of art where everything that goes into a work is done by the artist without the possibility of a digital assist are likely to view any noticeable degree of computerized processing as either cheating or at the very least displaying lesser artistic merit. (I can't decide whether I am ashamed or proud of the length of the previous sentence).

[TaoMaas]

Processed or not, it's the final image that counts. I've seen some highly processed images that were only so-so photos. The effects did not make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

[philbaum]

When even photography nuts can't reach a consensus on whether digital post-processing constitutes "cheating" or at what point processing crosses the line between acceptable and "cheating", I think we have to allow for the possibility that people from the realms of art where everything that goes into a work is done by the artist without the possibility of a digital assist are likely to view any noticeable degree of computerized processing as either cheating or at the very least displaying lesser artistic merit. (I can't decide whether I am ashamed or proud of the length of the previous sentence).

I think that the length of your sentence was an artistic achievement, although i note that it was achieved with digital assistance

Seriously, I think you helped me to understand better the choices this sculptor/jurist made. There was a beautiful cast ceramic swan, idealized and slender that was 5-6 feet tall, that he overlooked for awards or comments, in favor of one of the equally tall prize winners which was constructed out of old fenceposts and other junkyard detrius. In another case, an award winning sculpture was made of different sizes of nails vice 2 more elegant works cast from glass. This guy was all about low tech art.

One of the sad things is that the local organizers put a lot of effort into making this a social occasion with a reception and speakers, then some of the award winners don't even show up for this state wide contest. 2 years ago at my first juried contest in a more rural part of the state, the jurist didn't even bother to show up for the reception.

What's fun about these contests is walking thru these amazing collections of art all in one place. Frankly, i enjoy the paintings and sculptures, as much as the photography. Artists from 40 different cities contributed to this contest. But the judging is pretty much irrelevant to the experience, i would conclude.