News - September 2009

Contents

Sun and Moon Rejected Work Print Of the Month

My project “Sun and Moon” is progressing well. I have now produced a number of images in the traditional wet darkroom. The images are 4”x4” – small, but this seems just right for what are, after all, delicate images with wispy clouds and a floating, almost magical orb. Currently all my printed images are of the sun. It is less easy to get the required images of the full moon and clouds so patience will be required. I also have my large format camera set up and will shortly start producing negatives from it using the 600mm lens. I still expect to produce large inkjets of these images with light color washes to create surreal yet vaguely naturalistic colors.

I want to talk briefly about rejected work in this Newsletter. This is not a subject that most photographers would wish to acknowledge but it is a fact of life for those who regularly submit work to juried shows and the like. This has been an ‘interesting’ month for me in terms of rejections. I had work rejected for an international juried show here in Denver and also by Photo Eye for their online Photographers Showcase. This is, at first quite dispiriting but on reflection it need not be so.

Firstly, it is wise to remember that there are many photographers out there and many of them are exceptionally good as well as technically adept and highly committed to their work. It is hard therefore to expect to please jurors all of the time, especially when the jurors have so much quality work to choose from. Look at successful submittals and decide if they offered something special or just appealed to the juror. I have seen a lot of incredibly average (in my opinion) work accepted at major shows or for publication. Of course, I have also seen some work that has led me to wonder if I have the capability of reaching such a high level. Just look at the fabulous constructions of Huntington Witherill, Kim Kauffman or Dominic Rouse and use these as examples of what can be done.

Secondly, jurors have a perfectly natural bias toward work that appeals specifically to them. Simply put, that may not be the type of work that you produce. If you know that the juror is from a photojournalistic background it may not be a good show for you to submit your landscapes to.

Thirdly, remember to always submit your best work. I tend to mix the images from submittal to submittal to keep things fresh but that may not be the best idea. If you have recently completed a project you are satisfied with it is a good idea to keep hammering that project to jurors over time just to find out if there is interest in it.

Fourthly (and in my opinion most importantly) you must be yourself and produce work that satisfies YOU. Forget the competitions, concentrate on producing a coherent body of well produced work and let the chips fall where they may. I grant you, there is no substitute for quality so always produce the best work you can, but the subject matter is yours to choose. I have a portfolio of church interiors (“Places of Worship”) that some people think is boring even though they have never seen the work. Now I confess to being non-religious, but there is a spirituality to this work that continually attracts me to it and I have had a lot of fun preparing these images. That for me is enough justification to persevere with this portfolio. At some point I will tire of it. Then it will be time to move on.

Lastly, if rejection gets you down and is a constant theme in your life, it may be time to look closely at the quality of your work. If you work in the darkroom like I do it might be time for a course in darkroom magic. If digital is not your cup of tea, try doing a workshop specializing in traditional or little used processes. If traditional is not your cup of tea then take courses that will allow you to master Photoshop or color management. Learning new things should be a never-ending process and can open doors that you thought were permanently shut.

I have posted two new ‘Print of the Month’ images. They can be purchased for a limited time for only $100 each plus postage. The prints are archivally mounted and over matted and in the case of color images, are given a coating of protective lacquer. I use Premier Art Eco Printshield applied by hand.

As always, have fun with your photography and thanks for reading this.