Jury is Always Right. Sort of …

Here is a story that might entertain you. A couple of months ago I submitted a series of pictures to the Phillips’ Mill Photography Exhibition . I love and respect this show very much but, alas, this time none of my entries were accepted. Since they were submitted “physically” (what they call framed), the next Saturday I had to pick them up.   And while driving over there, I remembered that on the same day the submission to Ellarslie Open 33 in Trenton City Museum was taking place. Ellarslie Open is a well known annual show where various visual art forms are presented. I am not a big fan of such mixed shows: our modest photo-masterpieces often get overwhelmed by huge canvases, sculptures and other creations of human imagination. But this time I decided: why not? After all, the pictures were already in my trunk, plus the museum was almost on my way home. And so, from the 4 phill-mill-rejected photos I rather randomly selected 2 (which is a limit for Ellarslie) and in half an hour they were submitted. A couple of weeks later I learned that both were accepted, and on the opening day one of them got the Best in Show Award for Photography.

Now the question: which of the two juries made the “right” decision? The correct answer is: they both did. Even more correct answer: there is no right or wrong here. Each jury has their own preferences and visions and make their selections accordingly. And that’s it.

I am writing this because some of my friends photographers are still getting verrrry-verrrry upset when their images are not accepted to this or that juried show. Please don’t! Hope this story is a good illustration why.

And in conclusion here are the two pictures in question. I am leaving for you to guess which one got the award (in my opinion the other one is not worse  🙂 ).

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A Few More Shows …

Good news: my pictures were recently accepted to several juried exhibitions.  The first is called “Breathing Earth” and was accepted at the 35th Annual Juried Art Exhibition “Expressions of the Natural World” in Monmouth Museum (http://www.monmouthmuseum.org/acceptedartists.html).  As somebody may ask, is it still planet Earth? Yes it is: the image was made in Yelowstone. Moreover, except for a gentle “massaging” around the sun, there was no serious photoshopping involved.

Breating Earth

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The second image was taken in Point Reyes, California and accepted for the “Oasis and Mirage: Disappearing Water” exhibition in the D&R Greenway Land Trust in Princeton, NJ (http://www.drgreenway.org/art_galleries.htm). I was lucky to catch a moment when an ocean was glowing under the beautifully mixed sunlight (and lucky to come up with a nice title for the picture :)).

On the Edge of the Earth

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The last image “Colors of Mexico” will be shown at the 31st Ellarslie Open in Trenton City Museum
(http://ellarslie.org/ellarslie-open-xxxi). It was taken in Guanajuato, Mexico, and for those who have never been there, here is the key word: colors. Imagine all possible colors in all possible combinations, then add saturation, then more saturation, and on the top of everything throw a lot of blinding sun. The result will be Guanajuato.

Colors of Mexico