Camera club judges
I was a member of the Jacksonville Camera Club for five years. Due to a lot of circumstances, I was away from photography for awhile, and I joined the club when I was able to resume shooting. i wanted to enter competitions not to win, but to get constructive criticism of my work.
I never got any.
The club sought out judges from other Photographic Society of America affiliated clubs, and I learned that judging is a closed circle. To become a judge, you have to earn PSA points. You earn PSA points by winning PSA competitions. To win PSA competitions, you don’t have to take good, interesting photographs, you have to follow the PSA rules.
The focus is on rule following, not on creativity.
Since my photographic vision is different than other folks, I don’t really follow the rules. I had hoped to get constructive criticism. I never, not once in five years, got any. Instead I got comments such as “It certainly looks like it was taken at the time of day it was taken,” and “I just don’t know what to say about this one.”
The photographs are shipped out to the judges in large cases, so, of course they are jostled about. One judge’s sole comment on one of my prints was that the mat had shifted in transit and covered part of the print.
In another case, a photographic teacher at a local university who specilizes in alternative process printing looked at one of my albmen prints and said that the sepia tone matched the subject matter and it brought to mind an old process such as platinum or albumen. In other words, his sole comment was that an albumen print looked like an albumen print.
I’m through with camera club judges. They simply are not helpful.
