Westchester Photographic Society,
Special Competition: Nightmares, March 9, 2007

Prints

Digital Projection

Notes:

1.  The manufactured plane crash photo, above, is intended to replicate the style-less, and "artless" qualify of a photojournalistic "grab" shot. The airplane, which originally was higher in the image and flying horizontally, was moved behind the lower treetops, tilted and run off the bottom border -- as if the photographer didn't have sufficient time to frame the plane properly. Moreover, originally in focus, the plane was given a linear (or motion) blur to imply that the photographer also didn't have enough time to select a suitable shutter speed. To the left of the descending plane, just over the top of the out-of-focus trees, is the plane's left wing, the ostensible cause of the disaster, which, in comparison to the plane, appears to be floating to earth.

The stylistic attributes of a "grab-shot" such as this are "artless" and thus conflict with the prerequisites of amateur photographic compositions. Judges typically are not prepared to assess the purposeful negation of the stylistic criteria (aka "the rules") which with they evaluate competition entries. It is understandable, therefore, that "Curses -- Wrong Lens" (a title not seen by the judges), received the lowest score in this contest. But what if this were an accurate photo of a newsworthy event, and not just a pretense? My guess is that it still would have lost the competition.

Readers interested in issues related to judging amateur photographic competitions may wish to consult this linked article.

2. To the photographer, "Melting Pot," a composition of feet of diverse complexions, bears several associations, only one of which may be readily apparent to the observer. On the surface, this work is intended to be an allegory of the loss of ethnicity and culture in the "melting pot" civilization of the United States. But through its literal meaning -- a pot of melting feet, for some viewers it may serve as a synecdochal reference to the genocidal destruction of humanity. To this writer, the image brings to mind all those piles of abandoned shoes (and what they imply) that had been collected from the German extermination camps of the Holocaust and are now exhibited in the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C., and similar venues elsewhere.