Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/02/12
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Ric, Yes, I did look at the pictures, and I go to the exhibition every year. I am not saying that the winning image is bad, but I AM saying that it is not the best of the images on show and that the winners of this competition are selected based on the committee's desire to highlight certain issues as much as on the photography. Let me put it in another way: if a Martian looked at the winning entries of World Press Photo over the years, he would invariably conclude that life on earth is an unending misery of wars, famines and natural disasters. Of course I understand how the media work and that these tragedies generate lots of news and lots of coverage, but surely that is not all that life is about? I remember a few years ago the award was won by a Danish photographer with a headshot of a wounded man in Kosovo (or Bosnia, I don't remember exactly). While I was happy to see a Dane win, I must honestly say that I found the image to be quite ordinary compared to many other images in that year's exhibition. There was no doubt in my mind that it had won because the committee wished to focus on that war. In other years it has been equally clear that a political agenda rather than photographic merit is often the determining factor. When I go to the exhibition, I invariably find images that are superior to the winners but did not win because they did not fit that agenda. Nathan Ric Carter wrote: > http://www.worldpressphoto.nl/index.php? > option=com_photogallery&task=blogsection&id=16&Itemid=137&bandwidth=high > > I'm sorry guys, but did you look at the pictures? To infer that they > are the result of finding a disaster and flailing away with a motor > drive is unfair. No, I don't like every frame, but there are some VERY > strong images here. Did you actually look through all of them? > > One can perhaps debate that the sports photos are stronger technically > (though I'd question that), but alongside the others they pale to > triviality in their content. > > Everyone here strives to technical excellence, but no one would argue > that sharpness, depth of field and exposure trumps content. > > I'd have been DAMN proud to produce almost any of them. > > Do I weary of disaster photos? Yes, but emphasis on disaster and death > in news is another question for another day. > > Ric Carter > http://gallery.leica-users.org/Passing-Fancies > -- Nathan Wajsman Almere, The Netherlands SUPPORT FREEDOM OF SPEECH, BUY DANISH PRODUCTS! General photography: http://www.nathanfoto.com Picture-A-Week: http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws Seville photography: http://www.fotosevilla.com Stock photography: http://www.alamy.com/search-results.asp?qt=wajsman http://myloupe.com/home/found_photographer.php?photographer=507 Prints for sale: http://www.photodeluge.com Blog: http://www.fotocycle.dk/blog