Thoughts on Judging

[P3D Erlys Jedlicka <erlys@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

The members of our camera club believed in, and tried to get, judges who 
understood stereo photography.  Yet we had one remarkable judge who did 
not understand it at all (we thought).

Dr. "F" taught art at the local university, and whenever he judged, he 
chose slides nobody else thought ought to have won. After a while we 
tried to catch on to his reasoning, and we would try to choose slides for 
the evening's competition differently if Dr. "F" was judging. But how to 
choose a winner? Nobody knew.

Dr. "F" tried to explain the following: The only way photography becomes 
art is if it shows a truth in a unique way. Stereo make a scene look more 
realistic than an ordinary photograph does. Therefore stereo tends 
to veer away from art rather than move toward it. The more realistic a 
scene is rendered, the less it shows a unique point of view.

This point was lost on our members, for the most part. He gave one of my 
ocean scenes first place one night, and nobody else could understand why. 
It had no pizazz, no center of interest, it was just the ocean taken at 
sundown with nothing else in it, just a horizon and the ocean. Dr. "F" 
said it was the best our club had to offer that night. I remember 
wondering why they chose Dr. "F" to judge stereo if they disagreed with 
his choices of winning slides. 

In subsequent judgings I learned from Dr. "F" that it was okay to be out 
of sync, okay to have my own opinion of what I liked in stereo, okay to 
trust my own judgement.  I think I learned more from him than I did from 
all the other judges. (Still, I have to confess that when I knew Dr. "F" 
was coming to be our judge, I chose my slides according to what I thought 
would win ...) I was always surprised at the slides that won. Always.

Erlys in Mill Valley



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