This is the premier entry for the Salt Lake Seven photo group blog on blogger.com. What follows is the body of text from the email I just sent to the group about last night's meeting. The group is invited to add your photos that we talked about. You may even want to add a before/after version of those images that we cropped in class.
Please Note: ANY PHOTOS THAT YOU POST MUST HAVE YOUR © INFO EMBEDDED IN THE FILE &/OR APPEAR IN THE IMAGE AREA. This will prevent your photos from becoming an orphan work which can be freely appropriated third parties.
Anyway, here goes:
Thanks to all who came out tonight. It was good to see our recent book effort in print. It looked very good. Kudos to all who contributed, especially to Carl who was the ramrod for the project. Well done. Now we can all order a copy, and should. It will be worth having. Go to
We covered some interesting ideas, particularly in relationship to the Eccles show and the upcoming Springville Salon:
85th Annual Spring Salon - 24 April - 3 July 2009
Entries for this exhibition will be accepted at the Museum Tuesday-Saturday, 7-11 April 2009.
One of the things we discussed is how the Eccles show is a community art center, and the intent of the exhibit is to display the best representative work being done by local photographers. It will tend to include more work than less, and the shows will tend to be more loosely juried. There will be a small portion of images of significance, and a larger portion of images that are "nice," which is to say boring. There will be too many pictures that look like pictures you have already seen, and usually have been done better. Those of us who participated and had work accepted feel gratified, but the greatest benefit comes from the process of thinking about what you want to enter, wrestling with how best to present it, and then realizing your intent.
Entering a photograph in a juried art museum show is another matter. The stature of the museum is on the line. The museum curator will not want to see images that are too derivative (meaning you tried too hard to make it look like something that got into last year's show) or too bland (meaning it doesn't have a sense of freshness of vision or idea) or that too little thought went into its making. It is not enough for a photograph to look pretty or to be technically well executed. For a photograph to hold-up next to other works of art it needs to intrigue, inspire, challenge, and satisfy the jurist. It will need to be intellectually and emotionally stimulating. Most of all, it needs to feel as though it explores new ground - at least for the artist if not for the art world. Submit work that you feel shows your effort to discover meaning through your art, and that reveals something important about you and/or about life. Don't be precious. Don't be cute. Do be thoughtful. Do take risks.
We had some good pieces shown in class. As I mentioned, I can see a significant trend upward in the quality of the work that is brought in each time we meet. You are getting better. I think it is a reflection of the interaction between those who come to class. You ask for and get thoughtful feedback, and you respond to the challenge to bring new work. I commend you all.
For our next meeting on Tuesday, March 10th, we are to bring some samples of the images we are each thinking of submitting to the Springville Salon in April. This will be your last chance to get feedback from the group of what you are thinking of entering.
See you all next month.
Cheers,
Kent
Kent Miles - Photographer
Great Portraits in a Classic Documentary Style
Photo: Place de la Concorde, Paris ©1981 Kent Miles
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