I’ve participated in photography contests for the past two years, mostly involving state fair photo contests and the occasional themed photo event – i.e., St. Agnes Cemetery’s photo contest. This is the first year in which I will have entered my photographs in two different gallery regionals – the Albany Center Gallery’s Photo Regionals, and the Albany Institute of History and Art’s Mohawk-Hudson Regionals.
I submitted five images for consideration to the Albany Center Gallery; they can select a maximum of three for display, or they can take two, or they can take one, or they can tell me to take a hike.
I was supposed to hear something last Monday, but there was no news. I waited all day Tuesday, but unfortunately there was no cloud of white smoke (or black smoke) (or rainbow-festooned smoke) from the Columbia Street Basilica.
Waiting for the results is almost like waiting for Christmas. You know it’s coming soon, but the days and hours seem to take forever. Tick tock tick tock tick tock…
This afternoon, I got the results. And here they are. For the five pictures I submitted in the Albany Center Gallery Regionals:
Five entries… five rejections. I was told there were 500 entries this year, and they could only select 45 works.
Unfortunately, none of mine were among the 45 selected.
Not a great way to start the photo season for me.
Not giving up.
Not yet.
But I was kinda hoping for a better result than this.
I may need to sit at home and watch my DVD copy of The Iron Giant to feel better.
Except that I lent my DVD copy of The Iron Giant to someone six months ago and they never returned it.
Damn. Just isn’t my day.
Chuck The Writer 
I think the Palace Theater is a pretty good photo, I could have seen that picked. There might be some resolution issue, I don’t know if your scan is blurry on Flickr, or the photo itself is, that might not have looked great on the jurors’ monitors and even worse on print, you tell me.
Here is my take on the others though. You are dealing with professionals here, not a popular jury. Whether it’s good for us or not, it depends; I (and others) think the St Agnes contest is a sham for that reason, but I told you that privately already 🙂 Anyway, pros see *tons* of photos, so my guess is that anything gimmicky or photoshop-ish will get rejected. Star trails or car headlights trails: been there, seen that, that’s old. Split-film: gimmicky/photoshop, same as polar panorama.
The 50+ year film? Well, unless you included a blurb about the making of that photo on the form (there was no room for that), it was judged like any other photo, on its own merit, right? In that respect the framing is not perfect IMHO and… well… it just looks like any other old photo, or a recent photo that was Photoshopped. Or it was *actually* mistaken for a 50+ year photo, something you were not allowed to enter in the contest. You didn’t submit the same to the Albany Institute of History, right?
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Sebastien –
I appreciate your comments. This just means I have to improve my craft.
As for the Institute’s regionals, I submitted five different pictures so as to not overlap my entries.
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Don’t give up Chuck. Remember how you felt after the Altamont Fair last year and then went on to have wonderful things happen at other photo contests. 🙂
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Thanks Debbie – as it is right now, I’m not as disappointed as I was after last year’s Altamont Fair. Last year, I wanted to bury myself under the covers and watch The Iron Giant and City Lights and every depressing movie I could find. I do appreciate the support, though. Much thanks.
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Actually the craft is fine here Chuck. More soul maybe? For a star trail pic, it’s a good star trail pic. For a split film, it’s a good one, etc., can’t deny that. It’s just that the technical aspects overwhelm the subjects, in my opinion. Good for some contests but I don’t think it was for this one, something to take into consideration next year? Better luck with a popular jury for the last 4.
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Sorry to hear that Chuck, hope you do better in the AHA show.
I’m in pretty much the same boat as -S, really all of these except the Palace photo rely on a gimmick. At that point you’re down to whether the jurors like your gimmick or not. And especially in the case of the split-film image, they may have been confused as to how it would actually be presented; I know if I were judging, I would wonder how that will be printed, if it will have that grey border or what. And with the volume of entries, that wondering would mean sorry, not worth the time.
The Palace photo is less gimmicky but being panoramic may have also been a ding against you. But as I said on Twitter, it falls apart once viewed larger; a higher-res scan might have been the way to go unless you only want to print it 4 inches wide.
If you want to take any lesson from this it is definitely to research the judges. Though I did that and am still a bit puzzled at my own results. But I don’t think this is a group that cares how you arrived at the final image, more what the final image is in and of itself.
Better luck in the future.
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Bennett –
Hopefully you did get some positive results on your entries.
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It’s their loss! You KNOW they’re great, don’t give the “rejection” so much importance. It’s 2011’s version of Altamont Fair, and thankfully it’s over and done with ! Moving on …..
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Chuck, another thought is to make sure you properly submitted. I know it sounds dumb but they were extremely specific about file sizes, proper naming and description, etc. I’ve been warned for other CFEs to very very carefully follow the instructions, as one mistake will make them bin it all.
Anyway, you can always ask and hope the judges have the time to give you some insight. But I recently had a chat with another artist who ahd a piece rejected and got an explanation from the judge — he said he wished he hadn’t.
I assume the comment above about hiding under the covers is sarcastic.
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Well if you dont know what to do with the last photo I would like it for my wall. your photograpy is fantastic. You have a wonderful eye for The beauty of NY. I love it.
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