Dear fellow members,
Before covering the Gallery submissions this week - this should be easy, since there are only three pictures, one of them being mine - I want to express my outrage at what is currently happening with the PF list. What...???? Only three pictures were submitted to the Gallery this week. This has to be a joke! There was a time when it could take two weeks or even more before my submission eventually made it to the Gallery site.
What .. is .. going .. on ... ????
We find time to send postcards and discuss at nauseam the price and quality of printing postcards here and there through the web when these printing sites disappear by the dozen each week to be replaced by new names... Is this what the famous PhotoForum list run by an incredibly dedicated senior Faculty member of the world-respected Rochester Institute of Technology is all about????? I just can't believe it. Would I want to invite anyone of significance to join the list at this moment? Would any Faculty member encourage their students to do so? I don't think I need to write the answer!
Just look at the three postings on the Gallery this week:
- Marilyn Dalrymple - Green and Blue
Green and Blue indeed: that is the color of my face as I write this. With due respect, Marilyn, allow me to shake you up: I have seen your work over the years and recall the portfolio you showed us whence you won your fellowship to the RPS. Did you need our help to choose the pictures you submitted? Not a bit! Now, how do you think this picture compares to your RSP portfolio? I hate to say this (and you probably know it too) but this picture is confused, with lines going in every which directions and there is no focal point for the eye. You are a terrific photographer, Marilyn! Never let your own critical judgement allow you to be satisfied with this level of work.
- Pini Vollach - Street Shot Street shot... ??? ... Where is the street? What is this picture about? I look at it and I see a series of horizontal lines that have absolutely no meaning to me. Are they prison bars? Railings? A closed garage door? Is this an abstract shot? ... You, and only you, know. What is the significance of this image? All I know about it is extraneous. A scene shot in south Tel-Aviv. Does this tell me anything about the situation there? About the feelings of the photographer? Pini, with as much due respect as for Marilyn, I want to really shake you up. You have shown much better work. This should never have gone past your own critical sense. - Guy Glorieux - THE LOVERS
The Lovers... Waoooo! (and with big caps, at that...!!). Now we are getting somewhere ... aren't we!!!?? What? A colour photograph turned B&W with the computer (well, I happen to be the only one who knows for sure because I did it). But it has been so badly tortured with CS that is looks like one of these continuously refurbished 80-year old millionnaire lady on the strips of some resort beach. Is this all you've got to show, Mr Glorieux? Clap, clap, clap! This is a failed attempt at turning a back-lighted sun-drenched picture into a front-lighted, dramatic sky picture. Dear fellow members, remember to keep this picture for your students so that they can understand what never, ever, ever do with CS2. To compound the situation, the photographer provides extended details in the form of a long history course without ever/ever mentionning the picture he is showing....!!??? Interesting details but quite irrelevant to the subject of the PF list.
Now perhaps we should turn to those that have not shown any work this week on the Gallery.
(The group is far too large, of course... The list below is only indicative of what could have been seen on the Gallery. ):
- Herschel Mair - RPS Portfolio
A first-class collection of pictures which presumably was deemed inappropriate for the PF Gallery by the photographer. Yet, he needs the assistance of PF list members in selecting the pictures he intends to submit to the Royal Photographic Society. Is this you, Herschel????? What??? If you can be a winner and a teacher, why do you need us to choose your portfolio. Only you can do it. I won't give you any help, but I sure hope you show us the final portfolio the moment you have been appointed a Fellow of the RPS...!
- Rich Mason - Was a frequent contributor, now comments on the greenery of electronics..!! Nice...??
- Alan Zinn - When did I last see an AZ panoramic?
- Jeff Spirer - Where have you disappeared, Jeff?
- Dave Small - Comes and goes (mostly goes...)
- Jim Snarski - It was nice to see you last week, but where do you keep hiding.
- Bob Talbot - Comes and goes (mostly goes)
- All those that have left the list - Where have they all gone?
- Those that have not submitted and are not mentionned should not feel exonerated from this curse...
Dear friends, the PF list and the associated Gallery has slowly turned into a Social PhotoClub! We are in grave danger of disappearing. I have seen this process at work with one of the most excellent grouping of photographers in Montreal (the Zoum Club). The group has disappeared because its best members progressively left and, at some point, the core of excellent photographers was insufficient to keep the momentum. This is called the Grisham Law in the field of economics (google search for more info) and it leads to disaster. The story is that bad pictures chase good photographers out of the list and at some point, the process becomes irreversible. We are well into this process.
Folks, ask yourself this question: How long will Andy keep running the PF if this is all that we can come up by way of visible work? Remember: Andy disappeared earlier this winter for health reasons and the list came to a virtual standstill. If we fail to revamp our commitment, each and everyone of us, to
- posting truly excellent work on the gallery week after week; and
- generating discussion and debate around these images; and
- attracting once again new excellent members,
then I would'nt even put a single kopeck that this list will still be around by the end of the year.
And then, what do we do? Search for a better group? Gooood luck!
Regards,
Guy Glorieux
Guy, I made a similar, although shorter, rant about the gallery, the postcard project and the sweet, superficial nature of the list a short while ago and was largely ignored or scorned for my view about the importance and the nature of the PhotoForum. I hope you don't suffer a similar fate. I totally agree with your stand obviously.
