'The Professional Photo Judging'

A man in a drug store parking lot saw my equipment, said he was a pro

photographer, invited me to his 'pro' photography meeting that night,

gave me directions, but didn't show up, so I arrived on 'print judging

night' all alone in a fancy country club, but with my cameras. This is

part of what I saw and recorded, mostly among strangers, but with one

man who treated me as a total friend (Thanks John Kerr who actually

reached out.) Your ratings and critiques are invited and most welcome.

If you rate harshly or very critically, please submit a helpful and

constructive comment; please share your photographic knowledge to

help improve my photography. Thanks! Enjoy! John

Having been to one camera club meeting in all my life, a meeting of 'old men' in Springfield, Oregon who just looked at my work (now acclaimed older work' and just yawned then went and praised to the sky each other's 'sandwiches' -- slides made of transparencies stacked just like 'layers' in Photoshop, with a barn here, a field there and a moon from another transparency over there, then layered on celluloid -- manufactured images.   As a youth, with work that now has stood the test of time as really museum-worthy, they dismissed me, so I dismissed them.  They did pretty work, but that was all.  I never went back, nor was I made to feel welcome.

Some of their photos were pretty, but few were real.

This print above, submitted as Photojournalism finished second in competition, and would have qualified as 'street' except the pro who did it paid the man with sleeping bag under the billboard to pose. 

This is really a commercial shot . . . . posed and not quite really even documentary or photojournalism in my book because of the posing and payment, but still quite a good photo.

The photographer did not seem to recognize the difference between payment and a surprise capture and posing and a commercial capture and then labeling it as 'Photojournalism'. 

There is a distinction; in AP we would never have bought this photo knowing it was paid for and posed, as it was outside of photojournalism, unless it were so stated and taken to illustrate a story, for which posing was often OK, but noy 'passing off' seeming spontaneity when it was in fact posed.

A given reason why it was not first in show:  'it could have been a snapshot'.  Far from it, with that framing, that choice of low number ISO with deep saturation, etc.,  - next to impossible, even. 

I enjoyed seeing how the 'pros' at a substantial, wealthy camera club operate, but most were more than diffident at my appearance and many I found out to my surprise later were not understanding why I would photograph, even fearful, which totally floored me, since they are 'photographers' who record things with their cameras.

I had no real plans for my photographs, as I photograph throughout my life; it's a personal diary of my life, but I thought this one was worth sharing now that I look at it in retrospect, especially because since this is a virtual community -- so many of the 600,000 members here  have never been to a physical 'photo club' and of those, few have been to a 'pro juried judging', as here.

This is one member of a three-member jury -- this guy is a pro juror, and the other two were pro camera club members acting as pro jurors.

Actually, they did a rather good job, but the choices were among apples, fig bars with energy thrown in as choices - things that could not really be compared, and they recognized that.

I thank them for allowing me to watch AND photograph with no restrictions.  I hope they enjoy this Rockwell-esque view of their proceedings.  (See comment below.)

john

John (Crosley)

Browsing through rate photos street, I saw this one and stopped dead to admire it. It was only after clicking through that I realized it was a John Crosely work and smiled. "Of course!"

To me, this actually has a bit of a Norman Rockwell quality to it, a real charm in the posture and expressions of the two men. I won't over-analyze why it works so well for me, I just know I found this image exceptional, a standout on many levels. 

Good capture, John ... I really enjoyed your comment about the scene. Best regards.

A beautiful shot and a very nice story, John!

when I went to leave to hear misgivings about my having photographed voiced from a club officer, since I had been given free reign.

It's as though somehow I were paparazzi having parachuted in from a shooting of La Dolce Vita (the Italian film which gave us the word paparazzi), or from nearby Hollywood,  or the National Enquirer (which I do not read on purpose - to deprive them of a market for their stories), because (heaven forbid) perhaps I was going to do some scandal story on the workings of this somewhat unknown but quite professional and rather upscale camera club (unnamed here).

Nothing further from the truth, of course.  Although I worked a while for Associated Press first as a photographer, as a writer, editor and photo editor (World Service at the end being groomed for General Manager, even), I had no crusade against photo clubs.

In fact, I had studiously kept away since my episode in Springfield, Oregon when I was age 22, one summer when I first got a camera and already had some world class images (as I look back, they were world class). 

I left Springfield and soon shipped off with my camera in hand to Viet Nam where I continued to take photos, then returned and took photos of campus riots, freelanced a bit, took a job as a stock trader, but AP and UPI both bid to hire me (Sal Vader, later Pulitzer Prize winner, I think was instrumental in pushing Associated Press San Francisco office to hire me .)We last saw each other as good friends . . . . a very long time ago (if you read this Sal, I still regard your work with your daughter as steadfast and a model for a lifetime).

Time went by, I married and eventually, photography slipped away from my life, in part because my insecure wife was scolding if I took ONE photo in which an attractive young woman appeared.  Quelle Horreure to take a photo of a pretty woman, street style, in a supermarket when one is hired to take photos in supermarkets, discount stores, etc., as I once had a job doing.

I've re-established now, and now I've had my second 'camera club' experience.  Invited by a disheveled man in an old car (without a camera if I recall) who claimed to be a pro and drew me a detailed map to this country club where he inveigled me to go to 'meet me' and have a 'free dinner' on the club.

Well, I had been all over California - in five major cities in the previous three days and hadn't even got a motel for the night, and went hungry (and without money to this far off country club).  I was presented with a choice: drink water, or order a very good prime rib dinner but at the cost of a half week's food allowance.

I drank water and went hungry (and was plenty dirty and even more than a bit smelly too - this was entirely impromptu and I was entirely sleepless too.

But when the opportunity for something new related to photography arises, I'm game.

And when the chance for a possibly great photo arises, even subsisting on glasses of water, I'm all energy.

Special thanks to club member John Kerr, who went to the country club lobby, looked at my images on the Internet, saw them, said 'you're the best photographer in the room', and graciously stood at my side or nearby all night, even as I took this image.

Thanks John.  I couldn't find your card and couldn't track down your e-mail through Google, but my e-mail's on my bio page. 

Please write.

I don't forget true friendship or enthusiasm for 'the image' (as we both share!).

john

John (Crosley)

When I  went to this (unnamed) professional camera club as a guest of a guy who didn't bother to show up, (and it turns out at the time may not have owned a camera), I was a little like a fish out of water, and little effort was made to reach out to make me feel comfortable; reluctantly I was invited in, but I would have to pay for my expensive prime rib dinner (and for me that was a half week's food allowance and my money was in my car, literally hundreds of yards away and I was having trouble even walking -- a trip to the car was out.

I drank water -- a number of glasses.

But a photo like this, or even attending a photo club for me is a twice in a lifetime opportunity, and a chance of a photo like this is a once in a lifetime opportunity.

I picked up my gear as the judging proceeded and since there were no rules and no restrictions voiced, I just snapped away, encouraged by a newfound friend who thought my captures were 'great'.

This was the best, but others were nearly as good, though many were far more subtle.

This is like a lifetime best, or at least good enough to put in a book or an exhibition, if I were to choose.

Oh, I did stop today in Kyiv's enormous Pinchuk Art Gallery (not its correct name, but you get the idea) to drop off a private book I had printed last year, and the young women who I delivered it to -- I was delivery boy) started laughing at some of the photos you and other PNers have been looking at for some time. 

'This one was taken across the street, this one too, this one a block away, I told her, this one in Bangkok, this one in Las Vegas, this one in Paris and this one down this other street.'

I told her to open the second copy (I kept the open copy), and read it thoroughly if she had free time, then pass it around, trusting that some good in-house reception while the boss curator is in Basel for the photo fair there may do me some good.

Pinchuk was founded by a wealthy investor-industrialist when he was still a billionaire before the crisis and it's Kyiv's Go-To art center - an enormous affair with a tiny entrance on the first floor but quite large on upper floors of a big building.

Wish me luck.

I've started my amateur campaign to 'get noticed in the art world.

Rockwell Style or any other style, there being now no 'Saturday Evening Post' and my mentor being indisposed and 8,500 miles away.

Thanks so much for a well-thought out comment. 

I'm highly flattered.

john

John (Crosley)

There's more to the story since your comment.  You may or may not want to read it.

It's kind of like parachuting in from outer space to visit a pro camera club as an unknown amateur when a down and out member in a beater car invites you THEN DOES NOT SHOW UP but there you are, friendless and feeling insecure.

Well, I did what I usually do.

I took photos.

When the world's not my oyster, photography is.

I like to think that if I take a main highway or a dirt road, I can get a good photo.

And everything's a good photo opportunity, so I cherish life's byways and even those insecue or even moments of feeling unwelcome.

(except from one special person, named above, who was aces).

A few others were 'cordial' -- don't get me wrong, but I was not dressed or prepared to go to such a meeting having driven all up and down California previously for three days, and in all likelihood if I wanted to make a good impression should not have attended (but then I was soon Kyiv bound, so what the hey).

Thanks Ricardo.

john

John (Crosley)

Associated Press (and UPI too) gave me a job offer which I accepted, at age 22, because I could think clearly and re-tell the truth in an organized fashion without personal bias, even if I did have personal bias.  I knew how to filter it out.

I was thus a preferred story writer -- and as such learned to write 'stories' -- without any training except sitting at a desk and being told (without journalism school experience or any experience at all

you're a newsman now, kid, sit down, read the stories from yesterday, here's some bare facts, get on the phone, make some calls, get some facts and write some stories.

I did.

The stories were very coherent and I swam.

Sink or swim and I swam. 

Right next to the top before age 25.

They hired me to be a photographer, but almost the first day I met Cartier-Bresson who was touring with his work in San Francisco ('Who is this guy?' I thought to myself, but when I saw his work, I was stunned, and just gave up on a photography career.  I put down my cameras, and AP made me into a writer.  He had done already everything I could ever have hoped to do and ten times better.'  I lived in his shadow right up until his death in 2004 whenI joined Photo.net, (coincidentally).

Worse I had never heard of him.

Now as I'm getting older,  I'm returning and I'm a story teller.

This is the story of a photo, a very excellent but overprocessed photo print being looked at by a very picky pro photo 'jury' member . . . . who did not fault it for oversaturation or anything I would fault it for, or denounced it for not being 'documentary' or Photojournalism when it was not even later after it was revealed to have been 'discovered' early one day, then re-staged by the pro for cash.

If I take such a photo it may be at high ISO, not 100 or 200 ISO as here and saturation pushed the limit in the print, something I almost never do.  I guess that's just against my PJ nature -- to depict things 'as they are' not as being always 'pretty' or 'colorful', as here.

I'll never be making prints or photos that score highly with judges, I think, but I feel good about myself with myself about the scenes I do capture; Cartier-Bresson in the mid-40s gave up processing his own work. 

He let others print.  I can do the same, and no problem for me at all; same with photoshopping.

I'm a shooter, not a darkroom tech, digital or otherwise.

(as I am sure you are abundantly well aware).

Best to you my friend from NL).

john

John (Crosley)

There is the old philosophical puzzle:  Without someone to hear it, does the tree falling in the forest make a sound?

Modern sound theory solves that old puzzler, and it's clear there is sound, whether we hear it or not.

But if I write a story, or show a photo, what good is it if it is not viewed, read and enjoyed?

Not good at all, I think.

I value your feedback.

Without an audience, all my work is for naught.

I could never be some 'artist' who dies and heirs find an attic full of artistic treasures hoarded over a lifetime.

I believe in sharing.

I also learn much from the process -- you give back to me when you comment too.

I create for you (and others) and comments tell me if I succeed or not.

Tit for tat sometimes. (never for ratings though, rate as you wish, always).

Thank you so much for letting me know I've succeeded.

john

John  (Crosley)

Good work. Best Regards.

Thank you so much.

This was a once in a lifetime opportunity; I couldn't waste it.

Again, thanks.

john

John (Crosley)