At ArtiGras this weekend the first two judges came into the booth and asked questions about my technique and seemed interested and when the buzzer went off after a minute they seemed like they wanted more info but ran out of time.
All jurors were instructed to spend 1 minute in each booth. I felt i was off to a good start. The third juror went by after 2 and did not take her eyes off the ipad but for a second to let the shadow person know to put a mark on the sign and she did. I watched her walk past the next 3 artists doing the same and the artist before me she also did the same.
Asking some other artists Sunday morning they all told me the same thing about the third juror after describing her.
I believe all artists and mediums should be respected. Even though my work was not the best representation of my medium, and I know that, I think her lack of respect was evident. The other artists in my area not looked at were Glass, jewelry, sculpture, wood and photography.
I have seen many articles on the way to jury a show and the way they do things and all are great suggestion but implementing them and policing the jurors is another matter.
We need to inform the committee chairs when the jurors don't do there job as much as the committees police the way the artists presenting their work don't follow the rules.
It is time for the artists to stick up for themselves.
PS The photographer that I thought should have won the award did not and I have been a photographic Juror for over 10 years.
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LOVE THOSE COMMENTS, Barry and Connie. We get to see everything, scratch our heads in disbelief at the hotel later about what happened at the awards dinner earlier, and then drop our jaws next time as we win BEST IN SHOW down the road.
I dunno, Jim. It's just too hard to tell what's going through a judge's mind sometimes. And we don't know what kind of agreement with or instruction from the show that they might have. Another fact could be that she came by earlier "incognito" when you weren't looking or noticing. That very scenario has happened to us on a few occaisions and I swear I pay better attention than that.
Anyway. I don't mean to lessen the impact of what you feel. We've certainly had our expectations damned on occasion and I bet it'll happen again. I just don't know what to say about how to police these matters. Personally, I will probably never say anything about a judge.
Once at a Florida show the artists next to us thought we should have won an award and told the show director. I was trying to hide from that experience, but the director came by our booth as we were packing up and said, "I wish things had worked out for you better than they did." Actually, I had made more money in sales that weekend than I normally do, and the award we won last year was only $300. So I was really not happy that the neighbor complained.
I just keep issues I might have with judges under my hat. I also feel this way about artists who might have buy/sell goodies or who may sell notecards or unsigned prints when they're not supposed to. It's just not my place to rat them out. I think it's for the show committee.
I think every judge owes the artists a little respect to just look at what their work looks like not to ignore it and go by what is on the ipad. 10 seconds is disrespectful to the artist and the show organizers
Jim only had two chances of winning an award at Artigras; one in his category and the almighty BEST OF SHOW. In a field of 35 photogs, that's a small percentage of chance. I bet there were at least half-a-dozen who were left out for that reason alone.
Jay Canterbury won the category award, and he just had a solo exhibition in Butler Institute of American Art. Lucky guy. Skillful guy. He's not the first person to do the type of work he is doing, either, but he's been doing it a long time. He's got a tight body of work. And there's someone else who's popped up on the show circuit who's doing something similar, but I've not seen it in person as I have Jay's many times. I dunno if jay is still making Type C or other darkroom process prints or not. He may even still be shooting film.
Just keep plugging away, Jim. I looked at your website and you've got some fine work, indeed. Maybe we'll see you this spring on our tour.
Jay is still shooting film. Every time I see him, he's got some antique camera that he picked up here or there that looks like a whole lotta fun. I have a couple of his images, but I can't remember if he's gone to Lightjet or inkjet prints now.
It's hard to believe that Nikon has just released the D800, a 36 megapixel full-frame sensor (same size as 35mm image) camera. So digital has finally reached the level of film technology, er, sort of. I hope I can get one of these cameras someday.
But I really miss film and darkroom. I did black & white in sizes ranging from Minox subminiature to 11 x 14 view camera. Did black & white developing and printing with silver-gelatin prints and platinum contact printing process. Developed E-6 with reels in a stainless tank and made Ilfochrome Classic process prints with a P30 processor. I just really miss those days. My last day in the darkroom was sometime during 2005. Boo hoo.
Jim Swallow, I went back to your website looking for your 2014 show schedule and only saw 2013. As if you didn't have anything else to do....GIT ER DONE!
Thanks, I do think that Jay's work was very good and deserving of an award
This was an art fair, not the Louvre. This the nature of judging at art fairs. So, you may get your share of awards in this system. It works both ways. I have a friend who once won a $25,000 prize for his ceramic sculpture in an international competition of the highest level. He entered that piece with others in a show and got rejected. At one time, shows got well respected artists to jury events. That is not the case anymore.
The only time the jurors make good choices is when I win.
I had a judge chose who should win the Secret Santa contest here on AFI -- even for that I got emails complaining about the judging!
We all get used to it, Jim. It is even more unusual when we agree with them.
I wasn't expecting to win anything. several of the other photographers had much better work than mine. At every show I don't expect to win anything I just want the judge to actually look at it not ignore it.
Judging is an opportunity for education. When there are 36 photographers in a show and more than half are better than you it is not about the awards and never was it is about learning something, anything.
I don't know what you'll learn from a judge who has very little time to give even if the judge gives a minute or two. I don't think education is their role in the task. Your best bet is to learn from the other photogs or from photography and art history.
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