What I didn’t understand was that those “professionals” WERE my peers. They may be just like me, they may have created their own way as well, they may be (or once been) a budding artist, galleriest, publisher, etc in their own right. In recent years I’ve discovered that sometimes these reviewers have really giving some great emerging photographers a chance at getting more exposure. If nothing else, the photographer has a chance to talk to professionals in their field about what sorts of things they look for. Say what you will, art IS a business. There are egos, favoritism, brown-nosing, and everything else that comes with any business – the difference is, these people really do care about good art, and sometimes even bad art, but that is another story.

This past month I finally attended my first portfolio review, but not as a reviewee, instead I was asked to be reviewer at PhotoNola 2010. I can honestly say that it was such an honor to be invited and I’m grateful to actually have opportunities available to some of the photographers in attendance. I’ve been looking at portfolios in droves since I established Plates to Pixels gallery (platestopixels.com) and of course my newest project Diffusion. After a few years of doing so I’m still excited to get that cd of images in the mail – it’s like my birthday! However, seeing the work in person is always preferred, and there’s no better setting than in a conference room with an open portfolio on a table, REAL prints, and face to face with the artist! I’m a very hands on person, those who know me understand my desire and interest in seeing the artist’s hand in their work, I can’t say it enough! I love the interaction created between viewer and artist when they both can see a tangible human connection.

I love the interaction created between viewer and artist when they both can see a tangible human connection.

Art to me is very emotional, even when it lacks it – there’s almost always something I can feel, even if it’s disappointment. But I digress, my point is I love having the tangible conversation with the art and artists who created it, which is why PhotoNola was so inspiring and exciting for me, not only as a portfolio reviewer but as an artist as well. It was also nice to meet some of the people behind the work I was so familiar with. This past year I was introduced to Lori Vrba‘s work because we were both fortunate enough to be juried into the The Light Factory Third Juried Annuale. (The caliber of work in the show was quite diverse and made for a very intriguing photography show). To my good fortune, on the first day of reviews, Lori Vrba is the first to sit down at my table (dumb luck actually, she wasn’t on my original schedule) and I was pleased have a peek at her new body of work the Piano Farm – what a great way to start my first leg of this new adventure! Coincidently she also had a one night exhibit in town on Sunday which was like the icing on the cake of an already fabulous weekend. Anyway, the next two days of reviews flowed so well I felt I could have done them for another few days. You’re sure to see some of my reviewees in upcoming NW exhibits, in Diffusion Volume III & IV, and at Plates to Pixels Gallery.

A HUGE shout out goes to the staff working PhotoNola 2010, your passion and dedication for this project is relentless and should not go unnoticed. Your volunteering, organizing, and dealing with a bunch of high-maintenance artists and reviewers is exceptional. My hats off to you!! Thanks for making my first portfolio review, and trip to New Orleans, such a memorable one!

Oh and L+V…thanks for making me feel like a rock star, your checks in the mail.

See Jennifer Schwartz’s post on the Piano Farm exhibit here: http://littleurl.info/farm and read David Bram’s (Fraction magazine) review of the wonderous exhibit here http://littleurl.info/dbonfarm

To be continued…

PhotoNOLA is an annual celebration of photography in New Orleans, coordinated by the New Orleans Photo Alliance in partnership with galleries, museums and photographers citywide. December 2010 marks the fifth annual festival. Scheduled events will take place from Dec 2-11, with broad ranging photography exhibitions on display throughout the month.

PhotoNOLA festivities will kick off with French Quarter openings followed by a Slideluck Potshow on Thursday, Dec 2. A “Focus on Publishing” Education Day on Dec 3 will include a Mary Virginia Swanson seminar and a panel discussion with publishing industry experts. Friday evening will conclude with a lecture by Michael Kenna.

Portfolio Reviews with an international cast of curators, editors and gallerists will take place Dec 4 & 5. The Saturday evening PhotoWALK featuring review participants will offer the public a peek at 65 rising photographers from across the nation. Julia Street, Magazine Street and Central City exhibition openings will follow. The PhotoGALA Benefit Party & Auction at The Big Top will close out the night.

Exhibitions will feature work by Michael Kenna, David Halliday, Jessica Ingram, Dave Anderson, Letitia Huckaby and many others. Gallery talks, workshops, book signings, lectures and a Six Shooters panel discussion are also included in the lineup. The festival wraps on Dec 11 with second Saturday art openings in the St. Claude Arts District. Most events are free and open to the public.

Please join us to celebrate the art of photography, New Orleans style!

Volume III, 2011 – Group Showcase

Theme: Ortus (Latin) — rise, become visible, appear, birth, origin.

Congratulations to the selected artists!  We received over 500 photographs from just over 100 artists.  Soon we will be adding an out-takes gallery of the our favorite work that we just couldn’t fit into the print annual.   More on that later this month.  We will also be announcing the few featured artist selections from the Ortus show as well.  These selected artist will have a two page spread dedicated to their light-work. Thanks to all who entered and for supporting our vision with your inspiring “unconventional” photography! ~ Blue Mitchell

Selected Artists (alpha order):

• Barbara J. Dombach
• Becky Ramotowski
• Brenda Biondo
• Brian Jolley
• Brianna Burnett
• Buzzy Sullivan
• Catie Soldan
• Catlin Harrison
• Colin Edgington
• Deon Reynolds
• Elspeth Maxwell
• Gail Pine
• Grace Kim
• Greg Kemp
• Heather Leavitt
• Holly Bynoe
• Jason Kelley
• Jeffrey Crowe
• Jessica Somers
• John Bridges
• Juliana Cala
• Kirsten Hoving
• Laura Hartford
• Lisa McCarty
• Lori Bell
• Matt Frantz
• Michael Kirchoff
• Michel Pincaut
• Nicole Campanello
• Niniane Kelley
• Polly Chandler
• Rebecca Clark
• Rebecca Harlan
• Richard Hricko
• Rómulo Peña
• Ross Sonnenberg
• Ryan Zoghlin
• S. Gayle Stevens
• Tarja Trygg
• Teresa Nabais

Winners will be published in our group show feature in Volume III and will receive a complimentary issue.

Critical Mass 2010 is now open for registration!

Deadline to enter work is July 25.

I’m proud to be on this great panel of jurors, so much that we will be dedicating a spread in Diffusion, Volume III to some of the more ‘unconventional’ photographers exposed to us during the jury process!

Also check out the Photolucida blog to see some of the recent commentary about the reviews and more reasons why it’s worth your time, money and support. ~ Blue Mitchell

What Is Critical Mass?

The aim of Critical Mass, and all Photolucida programming, is to provide participants with career-building opportunities and to promote the best emerging and mid-career artists working today.

Critical Mass is a program about exposure and community. The idea is simple—photographers (from anywhere) submit a 10 image portfolio for $75. This work then gets pre-screened by a committee of approximately 20 great jurors and from there, 175 top Finalists are determined. These top Finalists then pay an additional submission fee ($200) and their work goes on to a jury of approximately 200 of the world’s best curators, editors, and other professionals who have agreed to view and vote on these Finalists. From these votes, at least one photographer is chosen to receive a book award and once the monograph is published, everyone who enters and reviews will receive a copy of the book(s).

We are pleased to continue to give scholarships to pre-selected photographers by geographical region. In previous years, Photolucida gave scholarships to photographers from Poland, Mexico, and Italy. This year, the lucky country is The Netherlands!

What to expect?

As an entrant to Critical Mass, you shouldn’t necessarily expect feedback from the jurors unless they want to contact you about doing something with your work. Jurors are given the opportunity and encouraged to provide written feedback, but we can’t guarantee anything other than:

• Everyone who enters will receive a copy of the Book Award Winner’s monograph(s).
• Everyone who enters will receive a CD containing all of the submitted work.
• Everyone who enters will have their work seen, and voted on, by the Pre-Screening committee.
• Those who continue on in the top 175 Finalists will have their work seen, and voted on, by over 200 jurors.

Click here for Critical Mass Success Stories.

Book Awards!

Photolucida will publish a monograph for at least one photographer from among the top-scoring finalists. The book award is reserved for artists without a previously published monograph. Photographers with self-published books are still eligible for the book award. If you already have a monograph, you still have over 200 great reasons to participate in Critical Mass!

CM 2009 Winners – Alejandro Cartagena, Birthe Pointek (in production)
CM 2008 Winners – Andy Freeberg, Céline Clanet, Priya Kambli
CM 2007 Winners – Joni Sternbach, Peter van Agtmael
CM 2006 Winners – Camille Seaman, Donald Weber, Amy Stein
CM 2005 Winners – Hiroshi Watanabe, Louie Palu, Sage Sohier
Click here to see!

Other Awards!

This year, in addition to the book award, Photolucida is pleased to partner with Blue Sky in offering a solo show to one of the Critical Mass Finalists. Founded in 1975 as the Oregon Center for the Photographic Arts, Blue Sky is one of the leading venues exhibiting contemporary photography in the United States.

Also this year, Photolucida is partnering with Newspace Center for Photography to produce a Critical Mass Top 50 Exhibit. Newspace is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting photographic education, with a wonderful exhibition space.

Both exhibits will take place in April 2011, coinciding with Photolucida’s Reviews.

Also, in conjunction with photo-eye, three of the Top 50 photographers will receive complimentary VisualServer websites and portfolios on photo-eye’s Photographer’s Showcase for one year.

Visit the website for more details, what else to expect, and the submittal process.

photolucida.org

LightBox Photographic Gallery is welcoming submissions for consideration to be displayed at the gallery during the run of the show from August 14th – October 6th 2010. This exhibition will be juried by photographer and master platinum printer Ray Bidegain and will coincide with his exhibition of new platinum prints of images from his trip to Scotland in the summer of 2009. Deadline for entries is July 15, 2010.

Please contact us at LightBox Photographic Gallery at info@lightbox-photographic.com or 503-468-0238 for more details.

CALL FOR ALTERNATIVE PHOTOGRAPHIC ARTISTS

In addition to the call for entries for our Platinum Print Festival, August 14th until October 6th 2010, LightBox Photographic Gallery would like to invite all Photographic Artist working with Wet Plate Collodion and other alternative processes to submit work to the gallery to be considered for display in the gallery alongside the Platinum Print entries. We hope to fill the gallery with great pieces, all work will hang in the gallery for a full nine weeks, during the run of the Platinum print show. If we accept the work and wish to show it in the gallery, we would ask for a fee to actually show, $25 plus $10 per additional piece, but there is no cost to submit work to us for consideration. Submissions for alternative work should be submitted to us no later than July 21st, and if accepted, work needs to be received at the gallery by August 6th, 2010. Please contact Michael or Chelsea at info@lightbox-photographic.com or 503-468-0238 for complete submission information.

http://lightbox-photographic.com/call-for-entries/

A juried exhibition for photographers working in low-fidelity or alternative process photography. Images must be shot with a toy or vintage camera and/or printed in an experimental or
alternative process.

Deadline July 30

Show us your best “Toyed With” images! A juried photography exhibit for those shooting with toy or vintage cameras and/or printing in alternative processes. The exhibition will be held September 3–October 8 in the Red Room at Open Shutter Gallery (www.openshuttergallery.com), Durango, Colorado. Reception during Fall Gallery Walk and Durango Showcase of the Arts. Cash and photography related awards. Juror: Kit Frost. Entry fee: $25 for the first image, $5 each additional, unlimited entries. For a prospectus, contact heather@heatherleavitt.com or download from www.toyedwithphoto.com.

For more information, please visit http://www.toyedwithphoto.com.

Artists Wanted’s international competition for inspired photography is now open

Details are at: http://www.artistswanted.org/

Submissions deadline is 11:59PM on May 31, 2010!

Our goal is simple – to find amazing photographic talents and expose them to the world in the most potent way possible.  Rewards and benefits will be given to all who participate. One Grand Prize winner will be awarded a Manhattan gallery reception, international publicity and their choice of $10,000 cash or 1 year living rent free in a $1.2 million dollar apartment provided by The Edge in New York City.

Our panel of judges including Photographer Lauren Greenfield, New York Times Photo Editor Maura Foley, MoMA Curator Nora Lawrence and JPG Founders Derek Powazek & Heather Powazek Champ, will choose one photographer for the Grand Prize:

* $10,000 cash or 1-year FREE living at a $1.2 million apartment at The Edge in New York City
* A Manhattan gallery reception
* Airfare & shipping to and from New York City for the event
* International publicity

The public will also cast their vote and the highest rated portfolio will receive the People’s Choice Award:

* $2,000 in cash
* A Manhattan gallery reception
* Airfare & shipping to and from New York City for the event

All participants will receive:

An online portfolio searchable by gallerists, press and commercial buyers; A free digital subscription to JPG Magazine; $100 in credits from Zipcar.com; and discounts and freebies from our corporate sponsors.This is your opportunity to capture the moment and share your talent with the world.

Send us your most powerful photographs: www.artistswanted.org

The Women’s Committee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art has launched an exciting and unique Photography Portfolio Competition. Three prominent jurors will select six photographs to create a limited-edition portfolio that will be sold to benefit the Museum. One copy of the portfolio will also enter the Museum’s collection.

The competition jurors are Tina Barney, the noted photographer; Melissa Harris, editor-in-chief of Aperture Magazine, and Peter Barberie, the Brodsky Curator of Photographs at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

The competition is open to anyone 18 or older, and it promises to draw artists as diverse as the museum’s collection, which comprises great artworks made all around the world. It is designed to draw attention to photography’s significance as a contemporary art form, and it is also part of a strategy to broaden and build the collection. Organizers hope to discover new talent.

“We want to collect contemporary photography very ambitiously and internationally,” said Peter Barberie, Curator of Photographs for the museum’s Alfred Stieglitz Center. “We must look broadly for new work, and this competition will hopefully bring many talented photographers to our attention.”

In looking for compelling new photography, Barberie knows he has to keep an open mind and let the photographer speak to him through the photograph.

“To recognize strong work, you have to be willing to have your mind changed,” he said. “It’s not up to critics and curators to decree what makes a great photograph. It’s up to an artist to use the camera in a way that makes us return to the picture again and again.”

Vision for the collection

As part of his vision to build the museum’s photography collection, Barberie also is looking to selectively add significant historical photographs – some from the early days of the craft and others from the early- to mid-1900s.

“I’d love to get a great 19^th Century landscape of the western United States,” he said, mentioning artists such as Carleton Watkins and Timothy O’Sullivan. “They’re very powerful and complex pictures of the American landscape that helped shape our understanding of what it means to be American.”

Other images on his wish list include a Florence Henri photograph, a photo collage from the 1910s or ’20s, and more works made by photographers including Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans for the Farm Service Administration in the 1930s and 1940s.

“Most of us have experienced the depression through those photographs,” he said of the FSA images.

Aside from the historical photos, Barberie’s vision for building the museum’s collection centers on contemporary work, which is much more of a gamble.

“There’s no agreed-upon set of criteria for what makes great contemporary art,” he said. “The current art scene is something of a free-for-all. Every good curator has to take chances on which artists will end up being significant.”

Trends in photography

Advances in digital technology are driving change in the world of photography, both in the ways photos are produced and the opening of new global markets.

Digital photographs are made in an entirely different way than film-based works (now often called analog photographs), in which there was always a direct, physical link between the light that shone through the camera lens and the final paper print. Both analog and digital photographs can be manipulated, but differently.

“We’re in a period of transition, which is actually typical for photography,” Barberie said. “In large part the history of the medium has been driven by technology. As different technologies become prevalent, they become dominant.”

“It’s clear now that digital modes are going to largely–if not entirely–supplant film-based photography.”

One trend Barberie noted is the large turn toward what he calls “artificial photos,” for which artists create their subjects, then photograph them. Another is the documentation of the photographer’s personal milieu, including family and friends. Both modes preceded digital photography, but they have gained traction with the new technology.

With the advances in digital technology and the ease of sharing work on the Internet, new photographers are being discovered.

“One development that we must come to terms with in the advance of digital photography is that the medium has become ever so much more global,” he said. “It’s challenging. There’s so much more material to see and more artists to know about. And it is tremendously exciting.”

Barberie knows he’s living in changing times in photography, and sometimes it might be harder to tell what’s good.

“I want to know what’s going on out there,” he said. “There’s more great work around the world and it’s easier to see because of the Internet. There’s a lot more to absorb. It’s the world we live in today.”

Hopes for the contest

The contest, which was conceived, funded and is administered by the Women’s Committee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, takes a different approach from what the museum has done before. The Women’s Committee was looking for a way to raise the profile of photography in the larger community as well as benefit the museum’s fine collection. The biggest fundraiser the Women’s Committee organizes on an annual basis is the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show, which debuted in 1976.  The show routinely raises more than $400,000 every year.  An additional annual fundraising event was added in 1999: Small Indulgences, a trunk show held in the spring. The group funds and/or administers many other museum projects such as Opening Galas and Form in Art, a program for visually impaired adults that combines art history classes with studio instruction, the oldest program of its kind in the country. “The Photography Competition is a new type of project for us,” said Cynthia Holstad, President of the Committee.

Museums often ask established, noted photographers to donate works for a fundraising portfolio. Because of the artists’ reputations, such portfolios can sell for large sums. On the other hand, smaller non-profit photography centers and galleries often hold competitions where just about anybody can submit work, usually for inclusion in an exhibition rather than a portfolio.

“Open competitions are a great way for curators to learn what’s out there in the broader world,” Barberie said.

This contest will include aspects of both approaches in the hope of discovering new talent.

“What I’m hoping will happen is that we find terrific work by six artists who aren’t very well known, and they’ll gain a foothold, or at least a toehold, through their inclusion in the portfolio,” he said.

The contest has no categories. Barberie and fellow judges Melissa Harris and Tina Barney, will simply choose the best photographs.

“Really, the jurors will just want to select the most compelling pictures,” he said, “whatever the content.”

Does that mean each judge might have a favorite? Yes. And the discussions about the work and what makes it great will add to the weight of the outcome.

“Artists really have to point the way about what is significant content in a work of art, and what is significant form,” he said.

So what does a winner look like?

“I don’t’ know,” he said. “The winners are going to have to show me!”

http://pmaphotocompetition.org/