birch tree under a full moon ~ (embiggenable) • µ4/3
NYC ~ (embiggenable) • µ4/3
Scotland ~ (embiggenable) • µ4/3
IN A RECENT ENTRY I WROTE ABOUT the digital picture making era embrace of / return to Pictorialism. A trend which has been especially evident in the arena of calls for submissions for juried group exhibitions. At least, in my experience, with the galleries to which I submit pictures. And I am beginning to think that it is waste of my time and money to continue to submit to such calls for submission.
One such recent call for submissions is for a juried group exhibition at the PhotoPlace Gallery in Middlebury, Vermont. The theme for the exhibition is TREES
Fortunately for me, that is a theme for which I have plenty of submission possibilities. After all, I live in a 6.1 million acre forest preserve. Unfortunately for me, the juror for the exhibition could accurately be labeled as a practicing Pictorialist.
A statement, re: the juror's work on her site, states that she a visual artist (not a photographer) who creates art which ...
... preserves vanishing beauty in our vulnerable environment.
to which I call "bullshit".
There is no doubt that there is plenty of "vanishing beauty in our vulnerable environment". However, the work produced by this artist does not depict the actual reality based beauty to be found and seen in our vunerable environment. What is actually depicted in the work is a fanciful-existing only in the imagination or fancy; overimaginative and unrealistic-"interpretation" of the beauty to experienced in the world of nature.
Sure, sure, it's all poetic, touchy-feely and stuff-and there is nothing wrong with that-but, if one wants to promote the perservation of the beauty in our vulnerable environment, then show us the reality of that envirnoment. Stop telling us that you want to perserve something that does not actually exist.
All of that written, my point is simple. Submitting my straight tree pictures to that themed exhibition to be judged by that juror is, most likey, an exercise in futility, re: acceptance into the exhibition.
AN ASIDE This entry should not be considered to be a critcism of the exhibition juror. She will select those pictures which prick her eye and sensibilities. Pictures which are biased toward her personal taste. Which is the way such things work ...
... take it from me, someone who has been a judge for many a picture "competition" / exhibition, including being 1 of 3 judges for the final round of the KODAK International Newspaper Snapshot Competition. A competition for which I sucessfully persuaded the other judges that my personal taste was the correct one with which to determine the grand prize winner.