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INSPIRATIONIs it possible for a group of people to decide which photograph is best?
Chris Gatcum considers how competition judges choose winning
pictures and how other people think they’ve got it all wrong.
All images
© Chris GatcumSTRAIGHT TALKINGI
don’t know when I first heard
it, and I don’t know how true it
is, but at some point in my life
I seem to have ingested a story
that Rankin – the once enfant
terrible of fashion photography- left his course at London
College of Printing before it
finished because he’d decided his
tutors weren’t qualified to mark
his work. Now, I could look into
this and try to find out where
this anecdote came from (and
determine whether I’m actually
reporting a real-world event or
simply perpetuating a myth), but
that’s largely by the by. What’s
important here is my immediate
reaction to this tale, which can be
summed up by one word: outrage.
When I heard this fable I was
fundamentally outraged at the
arrogance of someone (allegedly)
suggesting the people who had
guided him in photography
were then deemed incapable of
judging whether his work was
good, bad or indifferent. Despite
not knowing any of the parties
involved (or even knowing how
true the story was) I was incensed
that somehow, by following their
prescribed wisdoms, a student
could think he had transcendedthe teacher and could be so
dismissive of them.
Now, the reason I mention
this is because in last month’s
Straight Talking column I
talked about the paradox of
photography competitions, but
didn’t mention the numerous
panels of judges called upon to
cast their respective eyes over
our imagery. Serving not only
as judges, but also jurors and
executioners, these poor souls
have what can only be described
as an impossible task. In fact,
you could say their role verges
on the absurd, because while itis easy to separate visual wheat
from photographic chaff, how
do you then find the difference
between the most splendid
individual pictorial grains? How
do you differentiate between,
say, one sullen teen staring at
the camera and another, when
both are equally desaturated,
equally morose, and both shot
at f/5.6? How do you judge one
long exposure monochromatic
seascape against another, when
both contain nothing more than
the sky and the sea in equally
flat, grey measure? The answer
is you can’t – at least not inThis is the exact same close-up of quartz running through a rock; the only difference is how the image has been processed.
Choosing which version you prefer boils down to whether you prefer a lighter, softer treatment or a more gritty approach –
it has nothing to do with apertures, shutter speeds or any other in-camera decisions.