The Brunswick Street Gallery’s annual “Picture This” exhibition opened this evening, and it prompted me to muse a little on exhibitions of this nature.

There were approximately 1000 images submitted by 385 photographers. That’s rather astounding. It shows the strength and interest in photography as a valid art form in Melbourne, Australia. There was but one judge.  Her task was utterly unenviable.

So, to my thoughts.

Of the 1000+ images, I estimated probably 200 could have won a prize.

What I did see was an awful number of very cliched images.

The full frontal, emotionless portrait in realistic or very slightly saturated or desaturated colours, often with some inanimate object being held, considered or in proximity has been done to death.  It’s boring. It is hackneyed. Even technically well executed it really offers little engagement for the viewer. When the object paired to the subject is a half eaten apple we get the whole Eve connotation. Been there, done that.

Photos of semi-clad, grungy, thin females perched on a toilet. Please, heroin chic died with Kurt Cobain, surely? Restating something doesn’t make it fresh, interesting or have a point.

In 2010, why do people enter images taken in 1996? Surely you would think that, if you were developing as an artist, you would have stronger and more relevant work from this milenia?

If you’re going to take a politically incorrect image you really need to think hard about it first. Are you damning the unPC stance, or by reiterating it merely perpetuating the meme? The problem with these types of image is that the people who will take it the wrong way are precisely the people you don’t want taking it the wrong way. I feel that one cannot be sure of the motives of the photographer, either. It is all too easy for someone to say it was taken the wrong way, but do we know what the photographer’s intentions really are? I am minded of the eternal excuse of the bully, “Oh! Come on! It was only a bit of fun!”. If you can’t make it blatantly obvious that you are being sarcastic, or otherwise definitively damning the unPC message, I think  you’re better off not taking the image.

Art students, take note! Yes, ideas are extremely important, but great ideas communicated with poor technique are pointless. It’s like knowing that you have the solution to all the world’s problems, but you can’t work out how to tell anyone your findings. Bad technique is not an artistic statement, other than telling people that your too lazy, too ill-disciplined or too incompetent to learn your craft.

Visitors to the gallery… when the announcements are being made STFU. You may think that where you bought your dress, or what mobile phone plan your on is essential knowledge, but hundreds of people want to hear who won, and the comments of the judge.

I am unsure as to where the line between photography (and this was a photography exhibition) and photo-manipulation lies, but when you image is montaged to within an inch of its life I become highly dubious. Are all the images the work of the photographer? What sort of stock is being used? Where are the credits for using others’ work? Copyright law is a lot more harsh on this sort of thing than you might think. Yes, montaged photo-manips are a lot of work, but it’s not really photography, is it?

Textures… I hate textures.  Very occasionally they enhance an image. VERY occasionally. Usually they are, at best, a gimmick, and at worst a way of rescuing an image that really wasn’t there to begin with.

What I wanted to see was more creative, original ideas. I wanted to see these ideas executed with technical aplomb. I wanted to see more graphic (not bloody…. enough of the emo/cutting/angst ridden horror schlock already… it’s so 1980′s horror flick, and no better executed) and striking images. I wanted to see more images with punch, either visual or emotional. I didn’t want to see more of the same.

Having said all that, there were some marvelous images. There were great ideas, well communicated. I didn’t agree with the decisons of the judge, but that’s the nature of these things. It’s a subjective thing, and I can appreciate the dimensions of the task, and the nature and matter of the comments she made. Having judged competitons of this sort myself I know that if I judged it next week I might well emerge with different results.  It was a tough job, and she performed it with dignity and consideration.