P3D "Contemporary" Photography

[Ron Fredrickson <RLF@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

>From Geroge Themelis:

>Competition assignment: "Contemporary".  The PSA definition states:
>"Contemporary photography may be defined as the concept that
>stimulates the mind of the viewer to interpret the message
>conveyed through the creative use of line, form, and color.
>The definition specifically includes computer generated/
>manipulated images."
>
>IMO, except for the last sentence, this is a totally worthless
>definition.  A form of photography is the "concept" that
>"stimulates the mind" to "interpret the message"???  WHAT DOES
>THAT MEAN???  I am sure no one asked an engineer or a practical
>person to review this...  "Creative use of line, form, and
>color"...  How is that different from ordinary photography?
>
>All it means, IMO, is an excuse to do computer work and present 
>it as photography without the risk of being penalized by some 
>judge who thinks that what you are doing is not photography.
>
>Those who do not work with computer generated or manipulated
>images can submit anything from "weird" photographic experiments,
>unusual films, to standard tabletop techniques (black light, for 
>example) and hope to do well.  Currently, only one Detroit member 
>works with computer-generated images.
>

Yes, George, I,  too, think that the definition of contemporary as used by
PSA is rather difficult to interpret. First of all, the dictionary
definition of contemporary is as follows: "existing, living, or occurring at
the same time; belonging to the same time". Then PSA goes on to qualify the
definition so that it doesn't mean what the dictionary says. Perhaps it
would be better to call it experimental photography. Most "contemporary"
photos, as entered in the exhibitions, show unreal situations which one
cannot find on photo trips, and UV pictures were among the early examples of
contemporary (I think that Al Sieg of our group was one of the pioneers in
UV in stereo). I have won one contemporary medal (from Cordova), and I
didn't even consider it as contemporary when I entered it; the judges so
decided. It was a picture looking into a birds nest with the eggs replaced
by dice, and the title was: "Eggs of the Las Vegas Pink-Cheeked Titwatcher".
I guess that it fits the definition of contemporary.... Although "Eggs..."
had a good exhibition record, only once was it considered contemporary (and
then not by me). 

Although I greatly admire the current contemporaries which are computer-
generated, I think it's unlikely that I will make any of them myself.
However, I think that electronic imaging and computer-generated images are
the wave of the future, so I'm not going to knock the experimenters who give
us our first looks at them. 

Ron Fredrickson
(no copyright)


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