I've had pictures dismissed by camera club judges that have won me
medals in national and international exhibitions.
What I'm finding interesting about this thread and the comments made by you and others is the universiality of the conversation. It seems that this experience has been had by many if not all. This fact, begs the question of "What's a valid image?" as opposed to "What makes for a valid judge?"
To have a local panel trash an image and then have the same image go on to national and international acclaim says, to me, the local panel of judges are an invalid source of judgement. To have a local panel say good things and a larger venue trash an image would be reasonable as it's obviously a larger group of works to be judged against. But to have the reverse is to invalidate the panel doing the judging.
You can't have both, one going backwards and yet have both say they're valid.
My two observations are:
1) Some camera club judges only see/produce camera club type work
and may not appreciate photo art that might do well on the
international circuit.
Which to me says they're not qualified to sit a panel.
2) Don't despair at what judges say.
No despair as this was an observation based upon the customer's comments of experiencing similar behavior or treatment. So the natural conclusion was to explore this phenomenon a bit further by posting the thought here on this international sounding board to see what others thought and hopefully see if they'd had a similar experience as well. Net result, many if not all have experienced this exact same social phenomenon.
"Very interestink!"
Create the photos YOU like -
it's YOUR hobby, YOUR recreation and YOUR pleasure. If you are a
creative individual then I am sure others will appreciate your
creativity even if they aren't camera club judges.
As I create I allow social ideologies to guide my thinking. My art is a reflection of the world around me. It's sort of a keeping up with the Jones's sort of thing. A little is good, a lot is bad. I think Maplethorp is a jerk for some of the controversial photographs but was that all he was about? There's no way on God's green earth would I go in that offensive of a direction. Maybe as a conservative, in a liberal world, San Francisco Bay Area, I should take the liberal world on. Hey! An idea
But! Does my disgust of some of his work, invalidate his other other beautiful non offensive works?
http://www.artprintcollection.com/mapplethorpe_robert_1.html
The point, by allowing social conscienceness to creep into my photography, it forces me to push my envelope as opposed to allowing myself to sit on my laurels and not improve in technique and quality.
Not being independently wealthy, I have to push my imagery, one baby step at a time when the time presents itself. Yesterday I was busy fixing a messed up HDD and missed a chance that I had been waiting a couple of weeks for.
Shameful that we're only allowed one lifetime
