Observation

I belong to two camera clubs. One is a little more formal than the other in that we have dues, officers, etc. We have two contests per year where we enter our best picture(s) and have professional photographers and/or artists judge our work. They pick first and second place in each category plus select one “best of show”. The most informative part is when they tell us why they picked the winning photographs.

The second club has no officers or dues. We have an assigned subject to discuss at each meeting plus a photo assignment. Once a year (March) we have a photo contest where the public is invited to enter. We generally have from 200 to 250 entries. The general public is then invited to view and vote on what they think is the best photograph in each category. We usually have over 450 voting people attend. There are only a few that elect not to vote. Votes are totaled and first, second and third place photographs are selected for each category.

Now for the observation. These last two years I have taken my photographs that won top awards judged by professionals and submitted them in the other show judged by the public. Here, these photographs were judged way down in numbers and didn’t even come close to those that won.

Don’t take me wrong. I am not upset because my work didn’t win any awards by the public. My only reason for writing this is to point out that just because one judge, pro or not, ranks a photograph high or low on the scale, another one could give an opposing view. Even among pros there is often a difference of opinion on a single photograph. Secondly, this gave me an insight into what attracts the public. For example, in the “People” and “Animal” categories, they generally pick the best using the “cute” factor and not necessarily the one with a clear message, best lighting, composition, etc.

Next year I’ll submit a cute photograph

Good point...

Arvid Holt said:

I belong to two camera clubs. One is a little more formal than the other in that we have dues, officers, etc. ....The second club has no officers or dues. .....
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Secondly, this gave me an insight into what attracts the public. For example, in the “People” and “Animal” categories, they generally pick the best using the “cute” factor and not necessarily the one with a clear message, best lighting, composition, etc.

Next year I’ll submit a cute photograph

Click to expand...

Hi Arvid,

I completely "grok" where you are coming from . Having learnt this precious insight the hard way myself, I now let a few trusted laypersons take a "critical" look at my pictures before showing them to the general public. 90% of the time, they go for the ones I wouldn't pick myself. But this percentage has been decresing recently. This can only mean two things: either I am getting good at choosing the cute ones or they are getting better at appreciating photography and are not so "lay" anymore (LOL)

Cheers,

Cem

Arvid, you pinpoint why camera clubs and their contests never appealed to me: wrong set of criteria. At the same time the general public's taste is - simple matter of statistics - just a tad above the lowest common denominator. You only need to have a look at the mass-produced prints available at IKEA or any other venue making money with interior design. Cute cats, non-descript sweeping landscapes with either over-saturated Velvia colours bordering on 70s psychedelia or muted colours with a nostalgic look. It's all just Master of the Geln all over ...

There's several lessons we can learn from that for our own photography:

- It's all about taste, taste is a personal matter. Hence, people's opinions just matter where they coincide with your intentions.
- If you want to rep the benefits of what you are doing [= make photography economically viable for you], go with the lowest common denominator, try to give it a slight personal kink - and produce a lot of it.
- Professional or amateur [= lovers of their subject] may know how to apply general reasoning to their personal tastes but tend to be highly formalistic.*
- If lasting Art is your goal, f-bomb your critics, be they laymen or experts.
- Listen to all your critics, question them critically, and learn from their answers. It will inevitably help your way of photographing, either because you stand by your original vision but now know why, how and how to make the point clearer, or you adopt good advice.






*Sure, this is one of my pet peeves: It is so much easier to maintain an air of knowledgabilty [sic!] when you can run numbers and rules. Unfortunately it does not help to only quantify a phenomenon, you need to qualify your data, too. Otherwise they do not have any meaning in real life. This, BTW, is an application of the Falsifiability Theory.

Thank you Cem and Dierk for your comments. I doubt I will enter any more photos in the public contest. It just isn’t worth the effort. However, since I am a member of the club and get the results of the contest, I will continue to monitor the type of entries and how the public voted.

OTOH, I will continue to enter photos in the other contest judged by pros only to hear what they have to say about them. It is definitely a learning experience. I am retired and photography is one of my hobbies. I really don’t have anyone to please other than myself (the most critical), family and friends. But, the desire to improve is still there in both fun and serious types of photos. Also, there are always many interesting people to meet along the way.

Arvid