Voor de zesde keer dit jaar had ik eind juni een foto ingestuurd voor de Legacy Photography Awards (LPA).
Vanavond kreeg ik een e-mail met de uitslag en de ingestuurde foto van Anoek kreeg bij deze wedstrijd een Excellence Award.
Net als bij voorgaande inzendingen dit jaar, ontving ik ook dit keer weer een prachtige, uitgebreide recensie over de ingestuurde foto.
Een heel uitgebreide mag ik wel zeggen.
De mail zoals ik die ontving:
Congratulations on your Mention of Excellence!!
Good afternoon, Tjeerd
On this occasion your photograph has provoked an intense debate on composition and aesthetics that would be impossible to expose here due to our time constraints, but we will be happy to summarise the basic points that may be of interest to you.
Your image presents certain points that deviate from the ideals of classical compositions, although we must remember that these rules are only guidelines or recommendations and are not unbreakable laws.
We can define composition as the process of arranging the elements in a work to create formal coherence and balance.
But, of course, nothing is more subjective than art, and knowledge of these compositional rules should not be something that limits our creativity.
In this case we see that the image of your model has cuts at the top and bottom which would be unnecessary in principle and which produce “escape” points in its reading.
The “cut” hand attracts our gaze and involuntarily becomes the excessive protagonist and we wonder if it would not be a better option to reframe to eliminate it.
We can also see that the line behind the girl reinforces the marked vertical character of the image while the horizontal lines “fall” to the left.
And finally, we must comment that on a chromatic level, the mixture of orange and pink is explosive.
It is unusual to combine both colours because of the strength of each one separately and because of the difficulty of achieving a balance.
The sum of all these points can make your image look a bit sloppy, with mistakes.
But that would be if we strictly followed the basic rules.
Applying these laws produces balanced images with a classic touch, but breaking them can generate a transgressive image, which wants to draw our attention to a current aesthetic, where the norm is to break the rules in order to stand out.
The aim is not aesthetics for aesthetics’ sake, but the representation of individuality outside these canons.
The blouse shows one part inside the trousers and another outside and this pattern is repeated in the sleeves, where one of them shows part of the hand while the other extends to the end of the frame in a play of symmetries that is hidden at first glance.
On the steps in the background, the aforementioned deviation coincides with the inclination of the model’s shoulders, not in degrees, but in direction.
We believe that if she had her shoulders in a perfectly horizontal position, the sensation of the steps “falling” would be much more evident. In this way it seems to be visually compensated.
As for the colour, we have already mentioned the difficulty of the combination, the level of saturation, the shapes or the amount of each of these colours in the image can be “interesting”, “assumable” or directly “unbearable”.
In this case both tones are vibrant but contained.
Both colours come from red so the balance of red in the composition is paramount.
A little more red in the orange would have been a disaster, but here the balance is perfect and the result is a cheerful and colourful outfit, with character, very youthful and perfect for an informal and summery look.
The scarf that your model wears on her head creates a repeating pattern that unifies her outfit even more and shows that her choice has not been casual but studied and planned.
We think we remember that these colours were already a trend on the catwalks before the pandemic, which reaffirms the success of your choice.
And finally there is the top cut. It’s perhaps the most common in fashion productions, but it’s usually used to give more prominence to the model’s features, especially in shorter shots.
We think it’s unnecessary here, but we don’t think it’s overly detrimental to the overall look either.
The model’s attitude is perfect. The slope of her shoulders is perfectly compensated by the slope of her hips in a classic model’s pose. Her direct gaze at the camera, without shyness, her lips slightly parted, without tension, and the gentle tilt of her head, a symbol of tranquillity and confidence, are proof of her ease in front of the camera.
The slight backlighting provides volume and depth, something that is reinforced by the limited DOF that isolates your young model from the background, giving her maximum prominence.
As you can see, we think this is a photograph of contrasts and that creates controversy by breaking with established canons.
We congratulate you and your model for the work you have done and we thank you very sincerely for sharing this image with us because it has been a source of interesting discussions until the early hours of the morning♥♥.
Legacy Photography Awards Team
In de e-mail wordt ook aangegeven dat de foto’s te bekijken zijn op de Facebookpagina en op de website.
Maar op het moment van schrijven is de link van de website waar de foto’s zouden moeten verschijnen nog niet actief.
Inmiddels weet ik dat dat op een later moment nog volgt.
Daarnaast staat in de e-mail dat ik de Accreditations en Badges kan ontvangen als ik het e-mail bericht beantwoord met “Yes”.
Dat ga ik natuurlijk ook doen.
Hoe worden de winnaars van deze maandelijkse wedstrijd bepaald?
“The photographs presented will be judged by the Legacy Photography Awards team and they will evaluate the originality, composition, lighting, creativity, visual impact and quality of retouching in case there is.
The team will choose a Winner, a Second and Third place in each category.
In the event that some photographs achieve the same score as those selected as Second and Third place, they will receive the same distinction ex aqueo.
The organisers will distinguish as Excellence those photos which in their opinion deserve to be highlighted for their merit and quality and that have come close to the podium.
An unspecified number of Honourable Mentions will also be chosen.
Said Honorable Mentions will be divided into 3 levels:
Honorable Mention Gold will be awarded to photographs that have reached an exceptional level and mastery of all areas.
Honorable Mention Silver will be awarded to photographs that the judges consider excellent in their execution in most areas even though it may present some errors in technical or artistic execution.
Honorable Mention Bronze will be achieved to those photographs that the judges consider deserve to be highlighted.
The winners, Badge of Excellence and Honorable Mentions will be announced on the website and social networks of Legacy Photography Awards in approximately one week after the verdict.”
Zoals hierboven staat te lezen wordt er per categorie een winnaar, een 2e en een 3e plaats gegeven.
Verder is er een aantal foto’s die je als runner up zou kunnen zien (zeg meer een 4e plaats): die krijgen dan de waardering “excellence”.
Daarnaast wordt er een niet nader te noemen aantal eervolle vermeldingen gegeven.
Met nadruk op “een niet nader te noemen aantal”, want er zijn heel veel foto’s die zo’n eervolle vermelding krijgen, zodat deze onderscheiding heel veel van zijn waarde kwijt raakt.
In een eerder blogbericht, toen ik een foto had ingestuurd voor de wedstrijd van januari, schreef ik al hoeveel foto’s er een onderscheiding kregen in oktober vorig jaar:
1e plaats: 6
2e plaats: 36
3e plaats: 10
Excellence: 87
Goud: 104
Zilver: 80
Brons: 20
In dat kader bezien raakt de onderscheiding Excellence ook weer veel van zijn waarde kwijt, al is niet goed in te schatten hoeveel foto’s er per maand worden ingezonden.
Neemt niet weg dat ik het een hele eer vind dat de foto van Anoek, Anoek (0528), deze onderscheiding heeft gekregen en weer toegevoegd kan worden aan de specifieke fotopagina van deze foto.
Om in de race te blijven voor de titel International Photographer of the Year, zal ik ook deze maand weer een (oudere) foto gaan insturen.
Maar welke dat gaat worden?
Wordt dus vervolgd.
Laatste berichten over de Legacy Photography Awards:
LPA Mei 2024: Certificaat en Badge ontvangen
Inzending Legacy Photography Awards – Juni
Rona (0208) krijgt Excellence waardering
Voor alle berichten met betrekking tot de Awards, volg deze link.
Voor het Awards overzicht, volg deze link.