AMPOTT Judges' Notes, 2007
01/09/07 14:54 Filed in: Photography
Judges
Comments, 2007
This is my third trip to this podium on behalf of my fellow judges, and I regret that I am no better at speaking spontaneously than I was in 2005.
There are a lot of thoughts that I have to distill and represent here for you, the opinions and feelings of my four fellow judges, Noel Norton, William Aguiton, Elmo Griffith and Maurice Brown, all distinguished photographers and participants in this field for many decades.
I believe that you can be proud that the accumulated experience and wisdom that gathered to judge your work runs to close to two centuries worth of working in this business, though I am sure that my colleagues will not thank me for bringing this up.
The work that we viewed a few weeks ago was a collection of remarkable quality. The photographs that were submitted represented a significant and marked leap forward both in quantity and quality year over year since 2005, the first year I was priveleged to work on this competition with this association.
My fellow photographers on the judging panel bring their accolades and salutes to all the participants for their hard work and excellent representation of Trinidad and Tobago’s many facets. You have done well for your media houses and for yourselves.
That said, this remains a competition, and there will be winners and those who did not win. To that end, I’d like to share a personal experience with you.
A few months ago, I entered a competition hosted by bpTT with a photograph I was particularly proud of. I did not win.
I’d be lying to you if I did not admit that it stung. I made it my business to view the exhibit and after looking through the whole showing of work, I have to admit that my entry, though clever, did not fit the profile of work that the bpTT judging panel was clearly looking for.
Does this mean that my photo had suddenly become inferior? That the effort I put into it was invalidated? No, it did not.
I’ve entered far too many competitions and been part of judging too many more to read anything more into the experience than that.
Your work was presented fairly to the judging panel in 2007. No judge knew whose work he was viewing and under lights, arguments were put forward, positions defended and decisions were made about whether a particular photo was the best in a particular category.
Tonight, all of the judges, along with you, will find out who those photos belonged to and we are as curious as you are.
If you don’t win tonight, and even more importantly, if you do, the most important opportunity you will have as a result of participating in this competition is the opportunity to learn. To look at the winners and those who placed and think again about your own work and how it might be enhanced and improved in the future.
Competitions, particularly those in creative fields like photography are wrongly viewed as a killing floor, where the best move forward. Instead, you should think of them as a classroom, where you have a chance to look at the best in your field and to learn from the work that was chosen and to question those who did the selecting.
The judges also felt that this association was achieving a critical mass of growth and was ready to move to another level of engagement.
Some members of the panel have approached me with ideas on how they might also consult with AMPOTT in improving the effort that the association is making to coach and assist photojournalists, videographers and photographers in Trinidad and Tobago.
We urge photojournalists to rally behind the effort that Krishna and his team have been making and to properly constitute AMPOTT with a full, active team of working journalists on its executive.
There are many opportunities for working photojournalists to learn and grow and we would like to help you access them.
On behalf of Noel, William, Maurice and Elmo, I thank you for allowing us another year of working with you on this competition and we look forward to everything that comes next.
This is my third trip to this podium on behalf of my fellow judges, and I regret that I am no better at speaking spontaneously than I was in 2005.
There are a lot of thoughts that I have to distill and represent here for you, the opinions and feelings of my four fellow judges, Noel Norton, William Aguiton, Elmo Griffith and Maurice Brown, all distinguished photographers and participants in this field for many decades.
I believe that you can be proud that the accumulated experience and wisdom that gathered to judge your work runs to close to two centuries worth of working in this business, though I am sure that my colleagues will not thank me for bringing this up.
The work that we viewed a few weeks ago was a collection of remarkable quality. The photographs that were submitted represented a significant and marked leap forward both in quantity and quality year over year since 2005, the first year I was priveleged to work on this competition with this association.
My fellow photographers on the judging panel bring their accolades and salutes to all the participants for their hard work and excellent representation of Trinidad and Tobago’s many facets. You have done well for your media houses and for yourselves.
That said, this remains a competition, and there will be winners and those who did not win. To that end, I’d like to share a personal experience with you.
A few months ago, I entered a competition hosted by bpTT with a photograph I was particularly proud of. I did not win.
I’d be lying to you if I did not admit that it stung. I made it my business to view the exhibit and after looking through the whole showing of work, I have to admit that my entry, though clever, did not fit the profile of work that the bpTT judging panel was clearly looking for.
Does this mean that my photo had suddenly become inferior? That the effort I put into it was invalidated? No, it did not.
I’ve entered far too many competitions and been part of judging too many more to read anything more into the experience than that.
Your work was presented fairly to the judging panel in 2007. No judge knew whose work he was viewing and under lights, arguments were put forward, positions defended and decisions were made about whether a particular photo was the best in a particular category.
Tonight, all of the judges, along with you, will find out who those photos belonged to and we are as curious as you are.
If you don’t win tonight, and even more importantly, if you do, the most important opportunity you will have as a result of participating in this competition is the opportunity to learn. To look at the winners and those who placed and think again about your own work and how it might be enhanced and improved in the future.
Competitions, particularly those in creative fields like photography are wrongly viewed as a killing floor, where the best move forward. Instead, you should think of them as a classroom, where you have a chance to look at the best in your field and to learn from the work that was chosen and to question those who did the selecting.
The judges also felt that this association was achieving a critical mass of growth and was ready to move to another level of engagement.
Some members of the panel have approached me with ideas on how they might also consult with AMPOTT in improving the effort that the association is making to coach and assist photojournalists, videographers and photographers in Trinidad and Tobago.
We urge photojournalists to rally behind the effort that Krishna and his team have been making and to properly constitute AMPOTT with a full, active team of working journalists on its executive.
There are many opportunities for working photojournalists to learn and grow and we would like to help you access them.
On behalf of Noel, William, Maurice and Elmo, I thank you for allowing us another year of working with you on this competition and we look forward to everything that comes next.
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