Choosing images for a local competition

A more unusual type of post today! I’m a member of the Morgantown Art Association and twice a year, we host an exhibit that is judged by a visiting artist and for which ribbons and cash prizes are awarded for various placed entries in the various categories of watercolors, acrylic painting, oil painting, photography and so on. The first show, Exhibit 60 is open to all artists who live in a 60-mile radius of Morgantown is starting later this week. The second one, the All Members Show, takes place later in the year.

All the entries will be displayed in our gallery in a lovely space in the Mountaineer Mall, so if you get the opportunity, please come along and see the great work on display!

But back to the subject of this post. How on earth do you choose two entries out of the thousands of photos I have taken in the past two years or so? Here is how I went about choosing my entries and I’d be interested in any thoughts on whether you would have chosen different ones!

I usually start by thinking not about the photographs, but about the judge! The judge for Exhibit 60 is a watercolorist, Steve Griggs. His bio mentions that he developed a loose style early on and he often starts a story in one of his paintings, but he would like the viewer to find their own story prompted by the painting and then finish it in their minds. Thinking about that helps me in narrowing down my work. Some, perhaps many, photographs are complete in themselves in the sense that they fully tell a story of something or somewhere. They can hint at mystery, but often just illustrate what the photographer saw and liked during that session. Nothing wrong with that, and such photos can be dramatic and make great wall art!

But when a judge already approaches the world in a particular way, it makes a lot of sense to me to think about my photos in the same way. Going through my photos with that thought in my mind resulted in a first pass of 19 photos:

I then enlisted some help from family and friends to try to get external views of my choices and displayed the images on the TV at home with a scoring sheet. 5 points for a definite Yes, 3 points for unsure and 1 point for No. Of course, everyone has a different view on this, and getting a match between even a husband and wife on scores is not easy! But it is good to get a view from someone that doesn’t spend their days staring at photos on the computer monitor!

That at least gave me some ideas for what people generally liked and also didn’t really appreciate much. But the final choice had to be mine, and this is what I decided on.

My first choice is a photograph I took in Bodnant Gardens in North Wales. This National Trust garden is a real gem, and I was able to visit it in late April last year when the Azaleas and Rhododendrons are in full display. I took quite a number of photos of the gardens, but this one caught my eye for the competition:

This view of a stone wall in the main garden leading off into more of a woodland setting with bright flowers lit by the sun seems to me to be telling part of a story. Of course, there is the splash of color and brightness in the center framed by a darker and textured wall and arch, and bright strong colors always attract our eyes in a picture. But then there is the mystery. Where does the path lead? It seems to bend to the left just beyond the gateway, but to where and to what? We will never know, but we can imagine a garden that perhaps flows downhill to a stream in the forest perhaps. Certainly, somewhere that most people would be intrigued to follow in real life. I did darken the edges a little to make the contrast even clearer between the shadowed wall and the bright flowers. So that is my number one pick!

Next up is a photo I took close to home here in Morgantown. Last spring, we had the usual cherry blossoms alongside the waterfront in town, and I went down one evening before sunset to try to capture them. The weather was not great – cloudy and a bit dull, and I almost decided to head for home, but as the sun slowly set behind the hills, the clouds started to break, and some interesting colors spread across the scene:

Not as much mystery here, I must admit. The photo gains its place mainly because of the warm welcoming colors of spring and hopefully a nicely balanced composition with the bridge balancing the blossoms and an interesting sky in the background. We will have to see if the judge thinks the same!

I went on to make some plans for the show later in the year and add more to my list. I might take some more intriguing images during the spring and summer, so these are initial thoughts only.

The next one that really caught my eye for mystery and drama was from the UK again and was taken in the ruins of a church in the City of London that was bombed in the second World War and remains as a public park in the heart of the financial district of London. St Dunstan’s Church is very popular as a place to grab your lunch, but I was intrigued by this window, once filled with stained glass, but now empty and simply acting as a place to allow flowers and plants to cling to its carved stone. It was quite colorful in reality, but a black and white treatment allows us to simplify the composition:

I do like this one with its dark shadows that give us a glimpse of what this scene is all about but don’t really reveal very much about the location. It is sunny, but still somewhat threatening perhaps and it also makes me wonder if we are outside looking in, or vice versa as there is vegetation on both side of the window. Perhaps I should be changing my mind about the entries!

I’ve also created an impressionistic digital painting of this scene that I am very partial to, but I would think using a computer to make a painting would be a real no-no for a watercolor painter!

As you might be able to see in the first image, I had three different photos of penguins in my initial choice. The first one, with a single penguin struggling against the wind to reach the ocean was my favorite as I thought it showed perseverance and determination and we are left wondering just where the penguin is trying so hard to go:

But my granddaughter was one of the judges for this run through. And she much preferred this happier view of three penguins going hand in hand towards the ocean and some lunch!

Keeping with a warmer view, this vertical oriented print was a real contender. It was taken in Barnard, Vermont on a visit to see the fall colors and while the original photo was landscape format and showed much more of the canoe, I thought this cropped version that just shows the prow starting to move through the reeds and into a perfectly calm lake reflecting the autumn colors of the trees was much more evocative of both the place and the mystery of where the canoe is going, who is in it, and is it “sea-worthy” enough to be out on the lake?

Incidentally, just behind me when taking this photo was this road sign. Shows that this could be a nice little village or town to live in!

Just two others were in my final list. One of them had been entered into a photography show held this past month in the gallery and judged by a Photography professor at WVU. As there were no cash prizes for that show, I can submit it into one of these two major shows, but I was very proud that it was awarded the Best of Show award. I think this one may make an appearance later in the year!

I took this in St Louis as I was walking around the downtown area and saw one office building being reflected in the small square reflective windows of a second tower block. Certainly dramatic, and it appeals to photographers (and jigsaw puzzle enthusiasts!), but I was not sure how it would appeal to a watercolor painter.

And my final short-listed image is another local one. This time taken shortly after sunrise from the overlook at Coopers Rock State Forest near Morgantown. This is a photo of the notch of the hills as the Cheat River canyon ends. These mists swirling around the hills adds quite a lot of drama to this one, and the very simple composition of diagonal shapes gives it a lot of strength, I think. Another one to consider seriously for a future show.

I hope you have enjoyed this little soul baring about how I judge my own photography. I always think there is nothing like a physical print to allow you to enjoy a painting or a photo and if you are in the Morgantown area in the next few weeks, please pay a visit to the gallery and see what you find there!

And, if you happen to be there on Friday 5 April, we have a reception and judging results in the gallery at 6pm. All are welcome!