This year the world’s largest
photography competition attracted an amazing 173,000 entries from 171 countries.
As in previous years the professional competition required photographers to
submit up to ten images in one of thirteen categories, as a series that consistently
and compellingly told a visual story, whilst the open competition required
amateurs and professionals to submit single images in ten categories. National
awards (awarded by 54 local juries) honoured the best single image taken by a
photographer from each country that had been entered into the open competition.
The Sony “Outstanding Contribution to Photography” award for 2015 was awarded
to the veteran American photographer Elliott Erwitt and an exhibition of his
work was on display.
The discerning eye may have
noticed that this exhibition, which was housed in the East and West wings of
Somerset House, was visited twice. This was not intentional, but reflects the
fact that when we first visited the exhibition, on a Saturday, we had to queue
for 75 minutes to gain access, which didn’t leave us enough time to visit both
wings. Such a lengthy wait indicates two things: the exhibition was
exceptionally popular and the venue is not large enough to house an exhibition
of this type – Sony please note!
Professional Categories
The portfolios produced by the
professional photographers were clearly of most relevance to my own portfolio
work. What were the stories behind the portfolios and how effectively were they
portrayed? The stories seemed largely to fall into two categories: original
takes on world disasters and tragedies and intimate family stories. In the
former category came the overall winner of the “Iris d’Or”, John Moore (USA)
with his picture story of how Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, was overwhelmed
by the Ebola epidemic. Moore almost takes on the identity of a war reporter,
his photographs focusing on the trauma and grief of victims’ relatives as well
as the breakdown of law and order within the city. I understand that Moore’s
work, which is both intelligently composed and harrowing, was important in
alerting the world to the unfolding tragedy in Liberia. As such, it had a
purpose. Without this purpose I would have been inclined to criticise his
output as voyeurism, taking advantage of others’ misery.
Two portfolios concentrate on
another disaster, the collapse of the garment factory in Savar, Bangladesh,
taking the lives of over 1,000 people. Rahul Talukder (Bangladesh; 1st
place in the “Conceptual” category) photographed posters of “the missing”,
attached to a nearby wall. The posters had been degraded by exposure to the sun
and rain. The faces of loved ones were slowly being eroded, just as hope for
their survival was also fading (Image 1). I found this work quite moving; a
final reminder that each face represented an individual, lost in the tragedy.
The work of the Italian Annalisa Natali Murri (3rd place
“Contemporary Issues”), produced a year after the tragedy, superimposes the
faces of survivors onto pictures of their surroundings in Savar. Whilst the
resultant monochrome double exposures are eye-catching and clever I do wonder
about the value of this work as a piece of investigative photo-journalism. The
survivors talk about the profound effect that the disaster has had on their
lives, but has talking about this and allowing themselves to be photographed
been of any benefit to them, or does all the benefit lie with the photographer?
Of course it is not the job of the Sony judges to review portfolios on the
grounds of moral integrity. Nevertheless, this is one of several examples
within the exhibition of work by foreign photojournalists producing features
relating to war, disasters, poverty and crime in countries that are far less
well off than their own. Should we commend them for their bravery in visiting
potentially dangerous areas or criticise them for boosting their own
credentials by capitalising on the unhappiness of others? I guess that, since
they are professionals who may have had little or no choice in choosing their
assignments, I should give them the benefit of the doubt.
Image 1 (Rahul
Talukder)
To be honest, the “family
stories” portfolios (such as Dovile Dagiene’s images of her children playing
with sticks: 2nd place, “Lifestyle”) left me cold. There were some
fine individual images within the sets, but I took nothing from the portfolios
themselves. However, I’m not a family man….
I was disappointed, but not
surprised, to see very little work relating to the environment or the natural
world. However our own Simon Norfolk’s work, illustrating the retreat of
glaciers caused by global warming by inserting “fire lines” along their former
fronts (Image 2), makes a powerful point simply and dramatically.
Image 2 (Simon
Norfolk)
Finally, I must mention the
beautifully simple concept that won Donald Weber (Canada) first prize in the
“Still Life” category. The simple images of home-made Molotov Cocktails,
produced by “EuroMaiden” protestors during the riots in Kiev, Ukraine, are set
against an identical, plain background (Image 3) and tell a poignant story.
Image 3 (Donald
Weber)
Open Competition
As always, the most imaginative
and aesthetically pleasing images could be found in the Open Competition.
Wilson Lee’s winning entry in the “Smile” competition (Image 4) is a typical
example.
Image 4 (Wilson Lee)
Zoltan Toth’s futuristic
composition (Image 5) won the Hungarian national prize and was shortlisted for
the “Enhanced” competition, whilst Marcus Bayer’s shortlisted composition
(Image 6) was one of several stunning photographs in the “Architecture” section.
Image 5 (Zoltan Toth)
Image 6 (Marcus Bayer)
This exhibition would benefit
from being held in much less cramped and confined surroundings than the East
and West Wings of Somerset House.
Now that I have spent almost a
year putting together my Major Project portfolio of images, study of the
professional competition entries certainly gave me further insight into how to
create, design and produce a portfolio of images on a given theme - this may at
least be of use for future work! In particular, the success of certain
portfolios such as those produced by Rahul Talukder and Donald Weber (above)
emphasises the importance of planning a portfolio around a simple but powerful
concept or idea, a lesson that I have learnt over the last 18 months.
The winning and shortlisted
images in the Open competition (the latter best viewed in the book of the
exhibition) provided me with much pleasure and also suggested some ideas for
future photographic work and study.
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