PDN publishes 2013 list of 30 emerging photographers to watch

Some bloke sitting on a race track in his shorts, some ugly woman smoking a fag, some old guy wearing goggles whilst cupping hands, some old fat woman sitting in a chair, a couple of Welsh rugby blokes, girl in blue dress adjusting panties with seagulls, some blown up kid, Some chick in a spotty leotard, some girl in the sea with tats, girl with hosepipe and so on...

I mean, if this is emerging talent, then I am going to go home and wet myself laughing. It's a joke really.

As one of the photogs said "To realize who I am and unabashedly let my individuality dictate my work", yeah, and all that rather crass psycho babble and waffle is complete BS.

On a positive point, I like Lisa Elmaleh's pictures. Only by virtue of using the wet plate collodion process, now that's real hard-core photography. Respect to her just for doing it.

What has Sim Chi Yin got against feet?

Looking through the posted pictures, the only photos that stood out for me were from Toby Smith and Nadya Wasylko.

Toby's photos makes me curious about each location. It makes sense that he's worked with National Geographic.

Nadya Wasylko's Photos are staged model photos, but they feel fresh. Perhaps it's just because I never read fashion magazines.

The other photos just didn't grab my attention.

It does seem like the photographers were picked for their commercial endeavours. There is nothing wrong with using this criteria and I'm happy for their success.

I do think that the use of the word "Emerging" is confusing, given each photographer's resume. I was expecting to read about photographers who were just starting out (i.e. first job, first gallery show, etc.).

It's nice to look at competitions and top notch lists...

It brings out the best and the worst in people.

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With this client base ??? Damn... if they are emergents then I'm the new pope. Rich people selected by rich people.

I found the selection of this guy a bit odd:

'Muge' (the new Prince??)
http://pdn30.pdnevents.com/gallery/2013/index.php?contest=muge

I....don't.....get it.

All very art school.

"Emerging photographers"? Judging by their client lists alone, this lot have well and truly emerged - never mind all the awards they've already got.

They're all competent photographers, to be sure, but given their educational level - I didn't notice anyone who hadn't been to a decent university - and their work histories, so they bloody well should be. There are only three photos out of the whole 90 that I can even remember off the top of my head, and two of those were memorable for their subjects rather than the creativity of the photographer.

I don't know if it's still running, but there used to be an awards scheme (London-based?) for assistants who aspired to be photographers; it was much more worthwhile from the viewpoint of promoting people who really did need the exposure, and I recall the photos were much more varied and creative than this lot, too.

Christ there are so many bitter sods in DPR...that aside, although I appreciate many of the photos here, I find it a contradiction that this competition is supposed to help emerging talent but most of these photographers already have a big client base. The criteria for these competitions should be that they have done very little/none commercial work?

It is immutable. The "experts" speak (see comments below and probably above.)

I'm 60 and won't begrudge younger photographers getting attention. There may be better or not, but what matters is young people are doing great work and some are being recognized. Recognition helps everyone, but it is also ephemeral. Let's hope these photographers keep working to bring us good photography.

What you see a lot on photo sites like dpreview are endless sequences of beautifully shot clichés (birds, bees, flowers, cats, grainy B&W portraits with shallow DOF, gloomy street shots, overprocessed HDR shots, oversaturated landscapes, etc.). I don't see too many clichés in this gallery. I guess that's the difference...

(By the way, I'm a cliché photographer myself and my greatest ambition is to shoot something more inspiring. Long way to go.)

Want to see some world class imagery...go to 500px. There are some amazing photographers and most of them will never receive any recognition whatsoever.

I've looked at all the linked portfolios. Noting struck me more than the Instagrammed feel of saturation and contrast sliders, "square format == cool" and the feeling that they capture a passing phase as much as being part of it.
This is the epitome of photography as a fashionable, cheap, simple and off the peg like H&M/Zara. And I expect the fame to last as long as the clothes you can buy from those places.

I can't see absolutely nothing extraordinary about these pictures... Just look at the challenges here on dpr and you'll find tons of better pics... What a joke.

I can't see my name anywhere!

Seriously though, in these examples at least two of them got their horizons / verticals straight.

what a joke.

I keep observing that in such "competitions" the only factor to actually get picked is luck and more luck. I mean you could open any page on any photography social website and pick a photograph of the same quality and insight in no time. I mean you don't really need a jury for these things. it would be the same if they simply put all the names in a big jar and then pick 30 names out of it. same result, same quality. guaranteed.