Today I came through a Black and White Exhibition at the Centre for Fine Art Photography and I must admit I've been surprised by the poor quality of the works showcased. In the last two years I followed with interest the exhibitions at the centre and often found some precious gems among the works showcased, but in the current exhibition I wouldn't have even dared to submit at least 90% of the photographs on show, if they were mine.

The final selection was made by Jim Casper, the editor of Lens Culture which is not exactly the kind of magazine I'd like to buy, so that could be the reason..or am I missing something?

I'd like to hear your thoughts about the exhibition and especially hear from people who shot black and white for decades if this is the kind of pictures the market is demanding nowadays.

Andrea

You are right - I found 6 (10%) that i liked. Dynamic composition doesn't seem to play a major role for the exhibition - Yawn!
Lars .-)

It is hard to judge the images when you see them only on the web. They could give a different impression if you see them framed on paper at the real exhibition.
By judging the web gallery only, I agree with you. A few good ones, but a very low percentage I would want on my walls.

I liked two but that is not to say the rest aren't any good, they all seem technically very competent images but just not the type of images I would pay $400 to $700 for. I guess it all comes down to personal taste.

:-)

JP

Hmmm...number sixteen caught my attention for a while, but absolutely nothing inspiring, dynamic or half interesting in my opinion. Do people who see themselves as fineart photographers think guidelines, rules and impact play no role in photography? If someone says "Why did you do this?", can they just shrug and say "It's art, don't question it!"

Andrea, thanks for the link, I was really surprised to see so many 'slow' images there, the kind of images that I love, those that grow in time, images with soul, imho. I have to say that are just a few that I don't like...Really wonderful images, I'll come back for sure at them, I don't know about their lack of dynamism, or impact, their prices or other flaws, I just know that I liked a lot what I've seen! Thanks again!

Take care!
Codrin

i like most of them. just because it wont be suitable in a 1x gallery, doesnt mean its not appealing ;)

Yes, when it comes down to personal taste there's little we can do, we like or dislike an image :-) But I am curious, where do you see technical quality John? (I'm not ironic, I'm seriously willing to learn if I am missing something!). Just take the Juror's selection as an example: apart from the message, which I don't get by the way, I just see a snapshot with flat tones, some unwanted vignetting and badly blurred corners, nothing technically sublime...What about you?

So it really comes to personal taste :-)))


Zaahir, 1x has nothing to do with my post and I'm not bothered at all by the differences among the kind of published images :-)) I'm just wondering what people find good about those images in the willing to expand my view about BW photography.

Andrea

I think I agree more with Cordin. There are more that I like than not. The small internet size is disappointing, makes it hard to see very well. I would love to see the physical exhibit.

Like this site, many other sites and other juried exhibitions, it is a matter of taste and vision for the website or exhibition. If we all liked the same things, life would be boring right? In a recent juried exhibition I was in, the theme the selected photos seemed to follow was: "odd." All of the accepted photos had something odd about them, with varying degrees of technical competence.

There is a market for almost everything. The images in the linked exhibition have a bit of a soul/mood, something odd in them and/or an almost surreal representation of life in general. When taking these into account, general "rules" of photography are not looked at with a high level of importance. In the end, it's about visual/graphic and conceptual impact.

You also have to take into account that not everyone can pay to enter exhibitions like these, regardless of how great their photography is perceived to be by the masses. ;)

Wow, I really liked a lot of them! I think many would make really beautiful prints. There's only 2 that at least on first impression I don't much care for. Hmmmm.

Mostly beautiful stuff. A lot of it referring back to artists like Sudek, Koudelka, Bullock, Siskind etc. Only about four I didn't like very much. Also i think a good few would get into 1x. Though a good few wouldn't ;-) I guess I need to know why someone didn't like them. I'm with Codrin in that they are perhaps the type of image that takes some getting into, or growing into. I didn't find myself distracted by lack of technique etc, but then I am not strong in that area myself I guess.
I found it inspiring because the work I do/want to do would fit in OK with the stuff here. imho .( not saying my work is good enough yet of course, obviously ) Thanks for the link, Andrea. It just goes to show that there are as many opinions as there are photographers, and thank god for that!
Jon

I enjoyed viewing the bulk of the images......thanks for the link.......some really impressive images there, for me anyway......

Hi Andrea, the two that I like are the cemetry one 'road to nowhere' and the Stonehenge one purely beacause they are the ones that only provide me with subject interest, I'm not really interested in the others for their subject or content but I still do think they are well executed shots. Most display a good range of tones and are quite striking in their own right, I'm no mono expert by any means but from a technical point of view they look well exposed, composed and proceesed. Nothing really stands out as being incompetent but like I said earlier they don't appeal to me as photos that I want to spend time viewing but that is just my tastes.

JP

Thank YOU all for your opinions guys! I really like reading comments on stuff I don't really like and I see some are with me and some appreciate this kind of photographs, which is a good stimulus for me to investigate them more in depth.

I believe that, being a single-judge juried exhibition, the photographs are necessarily less varied than what we could expect from another exhibition, and addressed to a narrower range of viewers. For example, looking at the last year winners of the black and white Spider awards I can hardly find something I don't like, probably because the pictures are addressed to a wider public. But I also believe it's a matter of our photographic education and I guess that if I'll go back to the exhibition in 2-3 years I'll find some new picture that I like and viceversa.

Andrea

Most are pretty damn nice. All are, as the juror said in the statement, photographic.

I thought his surname was something like Ansell, The proper guy has some stunning black and white's of Yellowstone park, and some other great landscapes.
He was exhibiting in Edinburgh at the tail end of last year.
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i did love many of the images.. i find some to be inspiring.... there is a good calming energy about some of them. good fine art