A Learning Resource

[Sheetshooter]

In the I T A L Y thread of Dee's work I made mention of an idea for a "GALLERY" of exemplary work to serve as a reference resource for photographers seeking inspiration and courage to break with tradition.

The way that I feel that this would work most effectively would be as follows:

The inclusion of work would ideally be at the discretion of a 'CURATOR' [or curatorial panel] who would select appropriate examples from work posted to the forums.

The inclusion of work would be purely by invitation.

Authors of selected work would be invited to submit essays concerning their work and their approach to photography. Ideally these essays would be of philosophical, artistic and technique content with minimal concern for the equipment in use.

The "GALLERY" would function best as a locked forum so that the value of the information offered was not diluted by random discussion.

These are just some ideas to toss about.

Cheers,

[wendellt]

This is excellent
since I don't have much kit/tech knowledge but have something to contribute in the form of guideline tutorials on framing and composition

I would be willing to donate my time to writting some

I think if you get picture of the week you should be willing to discuss your thoughts and processes of your image and maybe some tips on how to capture a similar image
knowledge should be shared for the benefit of refinng your own skills and others alike.

The section could also be open to members who have other ideas about creative photography that they would like to share.

[Sheetshooter]

Further to a point raised by Gary in response to the initial suggestion in the I T A L Y thread concerning damage to fragile egos:

Inclusion of works into the propsed "GALLERY" must not be seen as an entitlement but as a recognition of exceptional works which benefit the work of others.

I cannot comment on the suggestion of having a ready-made resource at hand with the POTW winners until I have been and had a look through them, but at this stage I suspect that happenstance may have played a major part in some of those works and it is the work of those with a plan and a vision that I think would be of most value to the community as a whole by inclusion in the propsed "GALLERY".

Off to have a look,

[Sheetshooter]

It was quite a task but I have been and looked at all the available POTW shots and I must say that they are fine in the contaxt of single shots as POTW and they do provide some good insight into the possibilities of meeting the world through a lens.

But I think what I am thinking about is more the folk who are committed in some way to producing a body or work with a particular style or mindset.

Again, not seeing it so much as a competition but as a reference work.

[Greg B]

Sheetshooter, I find myself in two minds about this suggestion.

On the one hand, it clearly has potential to inspire, motivate and educate members with work done by others using, more or less, the same or similar equipment available to us all.

On the other hand, this forum's success has been due, in part, to a level playing field mentality, and as a safe place to post photographs of varying standard by people with varying experience.

Even the PotW arrangement carries an acknowledged degree of arbitrariness - the weekly selection is made just because the selector for that week likes the shot. There are no criteria worth worrying about. (And the result has been fun all the way)

So I wonder whether what you are suggesting could lead to difficulties with selection criteria, with creating a disincentive for new members to post an image, with creating resentment from the great unwashed whose works had not been identified.

Just some thoughts, I remain unsure of which way I would go on the matter, but it is always interesting to consider possible enhancements to our forum experience.

[Matt. K]

Sheetshooter
happenstance is as bonafide a technique as any other. HCB shot many hundreds of images, made numerous proofs, but chose only a few in order to grow his body of work. That's the nature of his working method. I think he would have as much to offer in the way of technical instruction as Ansell Adams, who as we know, used an entirely different method of working. Having said that I believe your idea for some kind of gallery is a good one and worthy of serious consideration. Maybe a hard gallery rather than a "virtual" could also be discussed.

[wendellt]

Maybe just knock off the selecion criteria

Just have a more visible section on the homepage for creative tutorials by anyone who wants to contribute.
Obviously experienced photographers would be the first to post, then others may will.

I know from talking to some of the mods that the tutotial PDF's on the homepage are currently under utilized.

[Sheetshooter]

Greg,

I suspect that the more cautious of your views is probably the more appropriate.

Still, it was a worthwhile exercise to at least have a think about it all out-loud.

Although I am new to the D70Users site I am not new to internet photography and one of the hard-earned truths I've had to come to terms with has been that these internet communities are a very different kettle of fish - unique unto themselves. I have also done my fair share of time working with photography magazines and the differences between the two media are so great as to make it foolhardy to apply the principles of one to the other. But at times I find that my hope overpowers my logic and I get enthused for applying the wrong criteria to the wrong environment.

You are quite correct in assuming that the impact of mediation, curating or editorial judgement would prompt an adverse reaction. After all, a great part of the appeal of internet photo sites is that everybody and anybody, of whatever competence or ambition, can self-publish without the distillation process of having their work accepted for publication.

Thanks for participating in and contributing your wisdom to the think-tank anyway Greg.

[gstark]

I'll be quite frank and admit that I kind of misunderstood Sheetshooter's initial suggestion, which he has clarified within this thread.

My original (mis-)understanding was that he would like to have a reference, within these fora, to galleries of our members, with a caveat that those galleries being referred to be selected for their overall excellence in some way in terms of the photographers' photographic and/or artistic skills.

Instead, what I'm seeing is a suggestion to implement a gallery of individual works, not unlike the PotW, but whereas the PotW is decided, quite arbitrarily, by one of the roster of mods and by whatever criteria the mod deems appropriate.

As Greg has pointed out, one of the really nice things about this forum (so I'm told) is that we do have the feel of the level playing field. We don't want to be intimidatory towards newer members or timid posters, and that's a vital part of who we are.

Be that as it may, we do see some examples of work that, quite simply, are exemplary in some way. These images may, or may not, be recognised as PotW along the way, but I don't exactly have a problem, with this concept. At least not in principle.

If we do move down this path, it needs to be done with some caution, and I don't know about everyone else, but I'd be quite uncomfortable with just having the one person responsible as the "curator"; rather, a curatorial committee of three or five members might be appropriate, but with nothing at all set in stone, I'm wide open to abuse. Er, I mean suggestions.

So please, let's keep this discussion going and see where it takes us.

I'm listening ....

[stubbsy]

Sheetshooter

First, some background: I'm a mug photographer and I've never won a POTW. I only started using a camera 4 years ago and a dSLR 7 months ago. I've never used film. So I have a LOT to learn.

Now some comments:
I think the concept of POTW is a great one and works well. Unfortunately the selected pics get lost over time. Collecting them all together in a central location would make sense to me - both for interest and for historical reasons. POTW also gives me some great images to inspire or engage me (Leigh's recent pic is a great example of the latter). So I'd say a gallery of POTWs is a good starting point.

However, having read your post, I understand this is NOT what you are talking about. Dee's recent Italy post- even if one of the 10 or so shots gets POTW, could easily fade to oblivion with many missing the opportunity to be exposed to the images. So the idea of a group of curators (to avoid any possible perceptions of bias) combing through the images posted and amassing a gallery of exemplary shots appeals to me too.

Again, though I think you are suggesting more than that and that's where I have a little disquiet. I've lifted the following to show what I mean

Authors of selected work would be invited to submit essays concerning their work and their approach to photography. Ideally these essays would be of philosophical, artistic and technique content with minimal concern for the equipment in use.

My disquiet comes from two aspects:

• It assumes that people whose images are selected would be comfortable writing such an essay and that they have the same ability to express themselves in words as they have with pictures.
• There is the risk that many people would be put off by the whole essay approach as being a little too dry and academic.

I'm not sure If i fall into the latter category or not. One thing I do know is I have had great enjoyment and learnt a lot from the mini essays you include in some of your posts. Where I'm unsure is if I'd have made the effort to read them if I hadn't stumbled upon them while reading said posts.

So, in closing, if I sound ambivalent about the concept it's because I am. I think there are a lot of very talented people here who have stuff to share and in many cases there is the chance that it can be missed. Problem is I'm just not sure whether your proposal will solve that problem. Certainly it's NOT something to be dismissed out of hand.