| Stephen L. Passman | ||
stephen@passman.org 703-442-6543 |
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Steve's recent judging assignments have been with the Northern Virginia Photographic Society, the Frederick, Maryland Camera Clique, the Reston Photographic Society, the Gaithersburg Camera Club, the Charlottesville Camera Club, and the International Photographic Society. |
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The way I see my role as a camera club judge is to provide the entrants in the competition with my best opinions of their work, within the guidelines set by the club organizing the judging. I do this because I consider the competitive aspects of entries as being important in the sense that each entrant should be trying constantly to improve her own work. Thus this year's is better than last, and this month's is better than last. Competition also is beneficial in that it allows entrants to observe and benefit from the levels of skill and growth of their colleagues. Specific placings and ribbons are not important. A club member's principal benchmark is herself. Her growth is important in her own context, not in the context of someone else. Indeed, a beauty of photography is that each person sees the world differently. Each person should strive to interpret the world as she sees it and give to others images in her unique vision. If I can help with that, I will have succeeded.
My first criterion for judging a photograph is that I want it to have immediate meaning to me, a person for whom images are an avocation. I want to see the use of the medium of photography to say something in a way that is interesting and, optimally, new. Many of the subjects we photograph are familiar ones, so the same for many photographers and the same for one photographer for many photographs. That's fine. There I look for an interesting interpretation, an answer to the question, "What do I have to say about this subject that no one has said before?" "Composition" is important. I can't define "composition", though. Certainly there are guidelines, and certainly some of the finest images I know break those guidelines. Photography, like any other métier, requires technical skills. The photographer must have control of these in the context of the environment in which she is competing. That is not a question. Indeed, lack of command of the medium is an embarrassment to all of us. Ultimately, though, photography is a means of communication of ideas. The best photograph is one in which an idea is enunciated well and communicated well to the audience.