I appreciate that it is best to go to various exhibitions but as that isn't always possible due to ti8me restraints or physical distance it is possible to view some competitions and exhibitions this way.
I started with Word Photography Awards sponsored by Sony. There are various categories in this but the ones that interested me the most was the professional ones and the student entrants.
I spent most time looking at the student entries. I wanted to see not how my standard of work compared to theirs but more I was hoping to be inspired by them and to have wanted to wish I been able take those photographs.
The brief was to shoot an image that could be used on the front of a newspaper. This could be of anything but it needed to leave the viewer wanting to know more.
Out of the ten finalists only two were black and white which surprised me slightly as black and white photography seems to be very popular. A wide range of subjects was included from hard hitting images taken at the Rana Plaza tragedy through to a photograph of twins laying on a sofa three months before they were separated.
Did any of the photographs move me or make me wish I had been the photographer to capture that image?
There was only one that I kept going back to it was called 'Human nature at its best'. In a softly lit room a youngish man holds a sleeping child in his arms. What makes this so poignant is that the man has injuries possible sustained in a conflict, he has no hands and his face is scared but its possible to feel the love this man has probably for his son. and also how he manages to hold him so the child would feel secure. Also in the room is someone else looking out of the window and a second child seated on a chair.
I would love to have taken this photograph to know more about the story behind it, something I don't think would be so moving if written.
Some of the other photographs left me feeling empty. This is a feeling that I have had before I went to the Taylor Wessing Portrait exhibition the end of 2012 and was disappointed by the images there, I discussed this with my tutor at the time explaining that I couldn't understand why some of the images were there as they might have been technically excellent but they left the viewer feeling cold.
The next section I looked at was the professional short list in particular the portraiture section, I must admit these were far more to my taste and some even made me laugh. Aside from the more traditional portraits albeit some with emotive titles like survivor, there was a series of nine photographs taken of dogs mid bath all trying to hang onto what ever dignity they still had whilst their fur was moulded into various shapes and they was photographed.
As both a dog lover and owner I could appreciate the amount of work that would have gone into capturing these various dogs and also the amount of mess involved. This section made me want to grab my camera and have a go but I think I will wait until the weather warms up first.
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