Good Morning Jeff. Well if there were “Street Police” I’d be arrested for crimes against Street Photography. I put a photo on Instagram yesterday of a guy walking past a traffic cone, a wall and a window all in Colour. Absolutely no narrative whatsoever, no gestures, no dramatic shadow or light either. I liked the aesthetic and feel, the simplicity, I like the photograph. I don’t particularly expect anyone else to “like” it and I wouldn’t enter it into a competition. I don’t think competitions are a good thing we’ve discussed this before. However, If I were a “judge” in a competition I might pick it. Even though I know what a good “Street” photo should be, I still might because it appeals to me in some way. Everyone would be saying “what’s this crap?!” That pretty much sums up competitions, subjectivity. If someone is going to be judge then they need to see all the evidence to pronounce a verdict. If I was asked to be a judge I’d insist on viewing every single entry otherwise I’d refuse to be involved. If the judges in that competition relied on others to narrow down the selection without seeing all entries for themselves then I’d say – Shame on those judges/curators! I looked at “Fisheye” and there’s some fantastic photography displayed (unfortunately not in the Pentax competition ). I also looked through “Competence Photo”, again top class photography and a few names in there I know.

Cheers for now. John.

There is no such things as Street Policy. But we can expect from a contest to be more selective about what they chose for the prize list.Especially when the curators are the brand itself and even a respectable magazine. One could argue that it’s all about curator’s taste. It’s always … But when 4 out 5 photos chosen are only “basic” light/shadow photographs, well time to name things by their names. The results are really lame. I have nothing against LS, but there is nothing going on here. No gestures, no stories … You do this kind of pictures when you’re a newbie. But you quickly understand that these pictures are pleasing to the eye but completely empty.
What is the message behind all of this ? That these photographs represent Street Photography ? Competence Photo, a french magazine ran a Free Call for Entry to be exhibited in Paris in 2 weeks. Check the results on their website and you’ll see a total different set of Photography. It was set by The magazine, Fuji and Art Photo Lab. Well Fisheye, Pentax/Ricoh should be ashamed of what they presented… The worst is that in the selection of more than 2800 pictures for the contest, they were really good ones but they ony submitted a selection of 20 photos to the final curators. And guess what ? Only at most average LS photos …

Cheers. John