#Alberto Mesirca

[bauerntanz]

Gitarrenfestival Nordhorn

Gitarrenfestival #Nordhorn startet heute

Bereits zum 9. Mal organisiert das Hordhorner Kulturhaus NIHZ das Gitarrenfest Nordhorn mit mehreren Konzerten und einem Gitarrenwettbewerb. Das Kulturhaus NIHZ wird von Bobby Rootveld und Sanna van Elst – dem Duo NIHZ- betrieben. Sie organisieren regelmäßig ein Blockföten-, ein Akkordeon- und ein Gitarrenfestival.

Besucher des diesjährigen Gitarrenfestivals dürfen sich auf hochkarätige…

[cristianoporqueddu]

Alberto Mesirca suona Metamorfosis de la Soledad

Alberto Mesirca suona Metamorfosis de la Soledad

Non ricordo il tempo che mi fu necessario a riemergere dalla profondità dell’arte di Cecconello dopo il nostro primo incontro, come non ricordo, se dovessi descriverli singolarmente, quali furono gli elementi presenti nei suoi dipinti che mi portarono così vicino al sentidodell’artista.  Già avevo avuto la fortuna di visitare i suoi luoghi della memoria e quelli immaginari dalle finestre che le…

[niconote]

SYNTONIC episodio #09. In onda mercoledì 30 novembre alle ore 21h su Radio Raheem 

ASCOLTA IL PODCAST: https://www.radioraheem.it/syntonic/syntonic-9/

Mi piace molto essere con voi una volta al mese con il mio radio set con proposte ibride, ascolti in anteprima, news and oldies. Grazie a tutti N*

Pic by Chiara Maretti Photography

Syntonic ep. 9 w/NicoNote

TRACKLIST

KATATONIC SILENTIO Fluctuation Languide

POLE aka STEFAN BETKE Grauer Sand

NICONOTE / WANG INC. Imprecise (Unreleased)

ALBERTO MESIRCA/LUCA SCARLINI Nuvola Barocca di Sylvano Bussotti

CLARK The Autumnal Crush

OBSOLETE CAPITALISM SOUND SYSTEM Monodic (Dubmonodic remix)

SINDACO  Atlantic Road

EDDY GRANT Time WarP

CHARLOTTE ADIGÉRY & BOLIS POPUL  Cliché (Soulwax Remix)

DORIAN CONCEPT Pedestrians

T  ERROR   Rising Tide

NICONOTE Sulla fine del viaggio taceva

Outro: DEMETRIO CECCHITELLI Human (Unreleased)

[lenscratch]

© Alberto Mesirca 

[latinabiz]

Tornano le mostre all'aria aperta a Latina

Mostra Con le riaperture tornano anche le mostre all'aperto a Latina: sono due appuntamenti con l’arte all’aria aperta nati nell’ambito della call internazionale Life in the Time of Coronavirus promossa da Roma Fotografia e dal Festival della Fotografia Etica per raccontare l’emergenza sanitaria da Covid 19 nel mondo attraverso l’arte e in particolare la fotografia. Come è avvenuto nel periodo natalizio, su iniziativa di Fabio D’Achille, delegato alla Promozione dell’Arte Contemporanea, e dell’Assessore alla Cultura del Comune di Latina Silvio Di Francia, tornano per le vie della città gli scatti che raccontano il lockdown divisi stavolta in due mostre: Smile at Home (Sorridi a casa) a cura di Maria Cristina Valeri, Alex Mezzenga e Gilberto Maltinti e This is us (Questi siamo noi) a cura di Alex Mezzenga. Le mostre, fruibili attraverso la modalità delle affissioni pubbliche, constano di 10 maxi poster 6x3 m, 40 manifesti 140x200 cm e 100 manifesti 100x140 cm disseminati per le vie della città. Hanno spiegato gli organizzatori: “Smile at Home  nasce dalla fantasia, ironia a e creatività con la quale fotografi, fotoamatori e cittadini hanno voluto interpretare, attraverso i loro scatti, il desiderio di una lettura diversa, cinematografica, a volte surreale di questo evento storico: uno sguardo oltre, capace di proiettarsi già in un futuro di elaborazione, rinascita e ripartenza per tutti noi. La mostra, nel suo viaggio itinerante, vuole quindi donare un sorriso che illumini ogni volto anche se solo per pochi attimi”. This is Us, prosegue il discorso lanciato dalla call soffermandosi sulla parte più intima e riflessiva che la chiusura in casa per diverse settimane ha innescato: “ciascuno di noi si è fermato e ha vissuto come in un tempo sospeso; chi non lo aveva mai fatto prima è stato costretto a guardarsi allo specchio, a fare i conti con la propria esistenza e ridisegnare spazi e abitudini, con la certezza e il conforto che da ogni parte del mondo si stessero affrontando le stesse difficoltà e si coltivassero gli stessi sogni. #thisisus è una selezione di immagini che immortala istanti, azioni, situazioni che sembra parlare a nome di tutti e così raccontare ciò che ognuno di noi ha fatto o ha pensato almeno una volta durante i primi drammatici mesi della pandemia, senza retorica o compassione ma con l’unico intento di suscitare negli occhi di chi guarda l’emozione di ritrovarsi in tanti piccoli gesti che si sono ripetuti giorno dopo giorno in ogni angolo del mondo”.Gli autori selezionati per Smile at Home: Andrea Morelli, Angelo Marinelli, Caterina Bruzzone, Corrado Ippoliti, Danilo D’Auria, Davide Ronfini, Davide Torbidi, Fabiana Cicatiello, Fabio Eleuteri, Fabio Salvi, Fabrizio Spucches, Fortunata Scarponi, Gabriela Matoso Ferreira Gomes, Giacomo d’Orlando, Giuseppe Piazza, Hermann Bredehorst, Jenny Liedholm, Lorenzo Biffoli, Lucrecia Esteban, Michele Campagni, Miriam Carini, Negar Aghaalitari, Nella Laquintana, Paolo Quadrini, Pierangelo Bogoni, Silbino Gonçalves Matado, Simone Bardi, Tadeu Vilani, Viviana Corvaia. Per la rassegna This is Us: Categoria single shot: Davide Bertuccio, Diyanto Sarira, Adam Firman, Arianna Liseo, Giuseppe Ulizio, Alireza IravanI, Sven Delaye, Barbara Rossi, Michele Vantaggi, Leonardo Mangia, Mario Cabras, Antonio Liberatore, Giovanni Firmani, Fortunata Scarponi, Valentina Bacci, Nicola Doro, Antonello Veneri, Anna Maria Noto, Mirco pio Silvestri, Chiara Rufini, Borja Abargues, Ilaria Pascazio, Rosa Liberati, Corrado Ippoliti, Manlio Cosimo De Pasquale, Michele Porcelluzzi, Giovanna Dell’Acqua, Maurizio Ugolini, Francesco D’Alonzo, Franco Luigi Beretta, Gabriella Caparrelli, Armando Di Loreto, Elaha Sahel, Luning Cao, Oliver Gargan, Michi GalliCategoria Short Story: Alberto Mesirca, Andrea Partiti,Anuradha Abeysekera, Arek Rataj,Bente Marei Stachowske, Diana Bagnoli,Fabrizio Spucches, Gianluca Uda, Giuseppe Maione, MD Zakir Hossain, Mobin Mayeli,Nicola Doro,Nikos Pilos, Paolo Testa, Pierluigi Perfetto, Tiziano Manzoni, Jordi Cohen Coodeforns. Read the full article

[thedaysofdisorder]

Marc Ribot - Bateau (2011) Alberto Mesirca, guitar    

[tanyushenka]

Photography: “Schoolgirls during a school trip climbing a stair at the Nizwa fort in Oman. It was a windy day when I visited the fort and this scene appeared before my eyes. You can notice the girls bending against the wind.“ by  Alberto Mesirca

[artwista]

Photographer Alberto Mesirca, Bridge to Nowhere ARTWISTA.com and Gallery Z22/Berlin present Professional Photography Challenge 2017 Jury: Frank Massholder, Gallery Z22, Berlin Petra Bormann, ARTWISTA.com Vladislav Sichov, Photographer, Paris Berlin Benefits: Exhibition for winners in Gallery Z22, Berlin. 1. Phase on instagram: - From 01. October to 30. November - 7 Category: Street, Portrait, Documentary,Fine Art, Fashion, Nature, B&W - Share your work using #artwista_photo_challenge and e.g. #street - 20 winners will be selected by Jury 2. Phase on ARTWISTA.com: - From 10. December to 31. December - Upload your photos on www.ARTWISTA.com - Final Submission Deadline: Dec. 09, 2017 - 7 winner will be determined by peoples' choice: more likes as criterium ARTWISTA APP in google play store https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ionicframework_artwista.app #artwista #artwista_gallery #art_curator_de #photo #artgallery #exhibition #photography #photography #modernart #berlinweekend #painting #berlin #portrait_photo_awards #bestoftheday #beach #contemporaryart #contemporaryartist #thephotosociety #instagram #modernart #bw #nature #bestoftheday #instagramers #awards #instaoftheday #photoawards (hier: Berlin, Germany)

[statuamsalis]

Shuffle Memery

(See, @congregamus? I did the thing! Is it half-credit due to lateness?)

Mass for Five Voices: Kyrie eleison* —  William Byrd, Stile Antico: The Phoenix Rising

 Digital Witness —  St. Vincent: St. Vincent

 Five Variants of ‘Dives and Lazarus’—  Ralph Vaughan Williams, Jacques      Orchestra/Sir David Willcocks: Ralph Vaughan Williams - The Lark Ascending; Tallis Fantasia

 Hercules, HWV 60: Act 2, Scene 6, “Cease, ruler of the day, to rise” (Dejanira) —  George Frideric Handel, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson: Lorraine Hunt Lieberson at Emmanuel

 Pick Up Sticks —  The Dave Brubeck Quartet: Time Out

 Beat the Bright Out of Me —  Kishi Bashi: 151a

 Ariettes oubliees: Il pleur dans mon coeur —  Claude Debussy, Veronique Dietschy, Philippe Cassard: The Debussy Edition

 Tanbur taksim —  Anonymous, Turkish Ensemble, Romina Basso, Alberto Mesirca, Fahrettin Yarkin: Voces de sefarad: Four Centuries of Spanish and Sephardic Songs

 Like the Morning Dew —  Laura Mvula: Sing to the Moon

 8 Geistliche Gesänge: Op. 138: No. 3, Nachtlied —  Max Reger, Netherlands Chamber Choir: Anton Bruckner, Max Reger, 7 Motets and 8 Geistliche Gesänge

This turned out to be a surprisingly apt cross-section! Honestly, if you’ve read the thing and feel like you wish you’d been tagged, you are hereby It. For fun, I’ll tag @elucubrare and @aeide-thea, because I know y’all will have similarly mish-mashed results, and @planesong just to see if she can be coaxed back over to these parts to make aural potpourri. 

*I promise I didn’t cheat by hitting “next” until I got a Kyrie....I was technically listening to Lianne La Havas when I sat down to start these shenanigans and decided to start counting after turning Shuffle on and beginning a new song.

[cristianoporqueddu]

I suggerimenti della settimana #7

Questi che seguono sono i miei settimanali quattro suggerimenti (due discografici e due legati a pubblicazioni originali per chitarra) in veste di Influencer per Amazon.

Il primo CD che suggerisco è quello di Alberto La Rocca, distribuito da Brilliant Classics, che raccoglie tutta la musica scritta da Andrés Segovia per chitarra. Il secondo è quello di Alberto Mesircache interpreta la musica per…

[legendarycollectorengineer]

Composer: Giulio Regondi Artists: Mesirca Alberto (guitar) An important figure in the history of Romantic guitar music, Giulio Regondi was widely admired during his lifetime but unfairly neglected and forgotten for decades after his death. Most of the poetic, captivating works recorded here were rediscovered in the late 20th century and edited by eminent guitar scholar Simon Wynberg (who is also the author of the booklet notes for this release). Regondi’s early life is shrouded in mystery: his birthplace (probably Geneva, but maybe Genoa or Lyons) and parentage are uncertain. His father (or possibly stepfather or foster father), who was himself an accomplished guitarist and composer, tirelessly cultivated and showcased the young Regondi’s musical talent, presenting him as a child prodigy of the guitar at concerts all over Europe. Regondi went on to become a much-fêted guitarist and composer, touring with other renowned musicians including Clara Schumann, and writing virtuosic and beautifully lyrical works for the guitar. He was also one of the few 19th-century guitarists to excel on another instrument – the concertina, which was a new invention at the time. This disc brings together Regondi’s complete works for solo guitar, including the world premiere recording of Feuille d’album, which was only discovered in 2010 and which Alberto Mesirca describes as a ‘wonderful piece’. Young guitarist Alberto Mesirca has won a Golden Guitar award three times (in 2007, 2009 and 2013) and has been hailed by Classical Guitar Magazine as ‘prodigiously talented’. Tracklist in comments

[niconote]

Martedì 9 aprile NicoNote Live a Torino alle ore 19, il Duomo delle OGR - Officine Grandi Riparazioni presenta: "Gymnopédie notturna, o della natura del suono", uno speciale evento serale ideato da Luca Scarlini e Valentina Lacinio in occasione della mostra #InConcert di Ari Benjamin Meyers.

Il concerto pensato per #OGRPublicProgram sarà dedicato agli scambi e alle sperimentazioni musicali, in stretta connessione con il titolo della mostra, la cui etimologia ci riporta alla consonanza di voci e suoni.

NicoNote, già voce dei "Violet Eves", chanteuse e performer, visiterà un suo personale museo sonoro, tra lied, opera e rock. Alberto Mesirca, chitarrista classico e rock, giocherà sulle corde tra antico e futuro, lasciando poi lo spazio alle raffinate sperimentazioni sonore di Aldo Aliprandi.

→ L'ingresso è gratuito con prenotazione: bit.ly/2CP8eVR

#OGRisart #OGRismusic #OGRismore #OGRTorino

[pauldeckerus]

Judging a Photo Contest: My Experience with FOCUS Photo L.A.

It began with an email one morning. The link in it led to the work of one hundred fifty photographers. I had 1,500 images to judge for Focus Photo, a s**t ton of looking to get it right. It wasn’t going to be easy to hold it all in my mind, to remember why I was making the decisions I was making.

To help me as I worked I made notes to keep my priorities straight, and those notes eventually became this story. So here’s how I judged Focus Photo L.A.

Geisha, from Fugue State 2017 © Aline Smithson

Window Reflections and Clouds 2018 © Stephanie Sydney

To start with, consistency. To get into the second round your work as a body had to score high enough to move you forward. One ten and three fives get you twenty-five points, four sevens get you to twenty-eight, got it? So I was looking for a body of work that was all headed in the same direction, with the same intention and skills shown each time.

A great lucky picture may live forever but it doesn’t make you a great photographer. Show me you aimed at the same bullseye for all the pictures so I can see how close you came to it.

Secret Message 2018 © Richard S. Chow

Mid-City, Los Angeles 2018 © Sinziana Velicescu

Second, craft. I’m not looking in a vacuum. You are up against a hundred and fifty other photographers. Many have spent years refining their skills, learning how to guide the viewer’s eye where they want it to go, learning how to make images that can’t come out of a phone filter. When I look at your work, I’m thinking about theirs too.

Maybe you need more woodshed time, maybe more staring at the work of others in galleries or museums or books. The good news is this is the part that can be learned.

Valentine’s Day, from Dúos de Oaxaca 2018 © Sally Ann Field

House on the Hill 2017 © Bob Avakian

Content. What are you making pictures about? I understand you probably made your pictures as part of your journey and so in some sense, you had to. But having made them, they are now being looked at by others. What is the impact of your pictures on others? In some ways, this may be the hardest part that is under your control.

It’s not easy to put yourself outside of your work — in fact, it’s very difficult. But unless you are hugely dispassionate, it’s necessary to show your work to others and then listen hard to their feedback. The more you feel defensive, the more it’s time to pay attention. If you are lucky enough to have someone tell you why they didn’t fall in love with your work take their words into your heart and see what you can learn from them. F**ked huh?

L.A. River #10 2017 © Alberto Mesirca

Round Peg 2016 © Reed Hearne

Where does it fit in the world? When I’m looking at your pictures I’m asking myself “Would I have it on my wall”? “Would I look at this in a magazine or online”? “Could I imagine this in a museum”? If the answer is no then I’m going to have a hard time giving it high marks. Pictures don’t exist in a vacuum, they live in the world, in some specific place in the world. If they live mainly in your head that doesn’t make them less valuable but that’s a small audience.

The next time you are making selections, ask yourself, where would I see this picture if someone else had made it. Wander through the pages of a magazine you like or your favorite curated photography website and see if you can imagine your picture in there among the others.

Circles 2014 © Ave Pildas

Hay Bale 2018 © Michael Knapstein

Make me feel something dammit! If you want to get to ten, stir my emotions. This is me now, not everyone but if you want to get my top scores your picture will have to connect with both my intellect and my emotions.

Intellect is easier I think. The well-formed picture, the use of light, the organization of the elements, I see that and I respect it and I give you points for it. That thing that stirs emotion, it’s not so easy to entice into your image as I well know. Nonetheless, the pictures we collectively remember and applaud have something that causes a direct visceral response in others. I look for it in my own work and I look for it in the work of others. It’s not easy to find and it’s easy to mistake your own emotional response to a picture you have made with the feelings of others but if I give a picture a ten you can be sure it stirred me.

Been there, done that. Not me but others. If you are working in a genre know that you will be judged by what has come before you. It can’t be helped…

Present Tense 2016 © Charles Volkens

Golden 2017 © Marcela Angeles

Here’s what I didn’t judge on: categories. Architectural, Street, Landscape, Portrait — that’s not what this contest was about. I also didn’t judge them in the context of the whole history of photography that has come before. That’s not what we were judging here, only the best of this year’s submissions. So I voted for the pictures I thought best and newest regardless of category. The ones that astounded, or amused, or awoke something in me.

Great Blue Courtship 2016 © Cheryl Medow

Looking West 19 2003 © M. Robert Markovich

I have my biases, I can’t help it. I’ve been looking at and making pictures for sixty years. I do my best to appreciate work unlike my own and your good news is that I like a wide range of styles and subjects. Nonetheless, I’m sure I missed something while I was doing my looking and if it was your work, I’m sorry. That’s why the competition had three judges. So that there were enough eyes and opinions to make sure every picture got seen from multiple angles.

Progress 2016 © Erin Tengquist

The Coffee Shop 2018 © Larry Brownstein

And as proof the system works, here’s a story about how things went. In the first round of judging all three judges looked at the work of all 150 photographers. We judged ten pictures from each one, giving each picture a score from one to ten. I spent days on this part, making a first pass then going back a second time after I had some knowledge of the whole field, then a third time a few days later to see if my feelings had changed.

When all that was done, I sent off my results and the other judges did too. Then the scores of all three judges were compiled to choose the twenty semifinalists we would judge for top honors. To my complete astonishment, the other judges didn’t totally agree with me! Although we agreed on many choices, they picked some pictures I had left behind and they left behind a few of my very favorite pictures. How could that be? Taste, opinion, a predilection for one kind of photography over another, who knows?

And that leads me to my final observation…

Kittens, Cigarettes, and Gucci 2018 © Jamie Johnson

Mursi Women 2018 © Kelly Fogel

In the end, it’s entering that matters, not winning. It’s nice to win, of course, we all like validation and maybe a few bucks but it was always in the cards that 149 of you were not going to get that top prize. What you did get was the chance to look at your work from outside, to pick and choose with an eye to what the rest of the world sees and to reflect on your work and where it’s headed. The contest is a moment in time, a chance to put a pin in the map that marks where you are right now. The next time you enter a contest it will be an opportunity to put another pin in the map and between them, maybe you can see where you are headed.

Pinetop Perkins 2008 © Jérôme Brunet

Havana, Cuba 2018 © Kasia Trojak

The contest is the organizing impulse, the moment for you to take stock and see your work afresh. That’s valuable every day, win or lose. Good luck next time!

Focus Photo L.A. is a venerable competition sponsored twice yearly by Photo L.A. and A & I Fine Art + Photography. Hundreds of photographers vie to have their work printed, framed and hung at Photo L.A. where it is seen by thousands of visitors.

The illustrations in this story are the twenty semi-finalists from which the three winners were chosen. All of them will be on display at the show. Congratulations to every one of them!

Photo L.A. takes place this year at the Barker Hanger, Santa Monica, CA from January 31st to February 3, 2019

This article was also published at L’Oeil de la Photographie.

About the author: Andy Romanoff is a photographer and storyteller. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. Romanoff is also a correspondent at L’Oeil de la Photographie. You can find more of Romanoff’s photos on his website and his writing work here.

from Photography News https://petapixel.com/2019/01/31/judging-a-photo-contest-my-experience-with-focus-photo-l-a/

[sailorrrvenus]

Judging a Photo Contest: My Experience with FOCUS Photo L.A.

It began with an email one morning. The link in it led to the work of one hundred fifty photographers. I had 1,500 images to judge for Focus Photo, a s**t ton of looking to get it right. It wasn’t going to be easy to hold it all in my mind, to remember why I was making the decisions I was making.

To help me as I worked I made notes to keep my priorities straight, and those notes eventually became this story. So here’s how I judged Focus Photo L.A.

Geisha, from Fugue State 2017 © Aline Smithson

Window Reflections and Clouds 2018 © Stephanie Sydney

To start with, consistency. To get into the second round your work as a body had to score high enough to move you forward. One ten and three fives get you twenty-five points, four sevens get you to twenty-eight, got it? So I was looking for a body of work that was all headed in the same direction, with the same intention and skills shown each time.

A great lucky picture may live forever but it doesn’t make you a great photographer. Show me you aimed at the same bullseye for all the pictures so I can see how close you came to it.

Secret Message 2018 © Richard S. Chow

Mid-City, Los Angeles 2018 © Sinziana Velicescu

Second, craft. I’m not looking in a vacuum. You are up against a hundred and fifty other photographers. Many have spent years refining their skills, learning how to guide the viewer’s eye where they want it to go, learning how to make images that can’t come out of a phone filter. When I look at your work, I’m thinking about theirs too.

Maybe you need more woodshed time, maybe more staring at the work of others in galleries or museums or books. The good news is this is the part that can be learned.

Valentine’s Day, from Dúos de Oaxaca 2018 © Sally Ann Field

House on the Hill 2017 © Bob Avakian

Content. What are you making pictures about? I understand you probably made your pictures as part of your journey and so in some sense, you had to. But having made them, they are now being looked at by others. What is the impact of your pictures on others? In some ways, this may be the hardest part that is under your control.

It’s not easy to put yourself outside of your work — in fact, it’s very difficult. But unless you are hugely dispassionate, it’s necessary to show your work to others and then listen hard to their feedback. The more you feel defensive, the more it’s time to pay attention. If you are lucky enough to have someone tell you why they didn’t fall in love with your work take their words into your heart and see what you can learn from them. F**ked huh?

L.A. River #10 2017 © Alberto Mesirca

Round Peg 2016 © Reed Hearne

Where does it fit in the world? When I’m looking at your pictures I’m asking myself “Would I have it on my wall”? “Would I look at this in a magazine or online”? “Could I imagine this in a museum”? If the answer is no then I’m going to have a hard time giving it high marks. Pictures don’t exist in a vacuum, they live in the world, in some specific place in the world. If they live mainly in your head that doesn’t make them less valuable but that’s a small audience.

The next time you are making selections, ask yourself, where would I see this picture if someone else had made it. Wander through the pages of a magazine you like or your favorite curated photography website and see if you can imagine your picture in there among the others.

Circles 2014 © Ave Pildas

Hay Bale 2018 © Michael Knapstein

Make me feel something dammit! If you want to get to ten, stir my emotions. This is me now, not everyone but if you want to get my top scores your picture will have to connect with both my intellect and my emotions.

Intellect is easier I think. The well-formed picture, the use of light, the organization of the elements, I see that and I respect it and I give you points for it. That thing that stirs emotion, it’s not so easy to entice into your image as I well know. Nonetheless, the pictures we collectively remember and applaud have something that causes a direct visceral response in others. I look for it in my own work and I look for it in the work of others. It’s not easy to find and it’s easy to mistake your own emotional response to a picture you have made with the feelings of others but if I give a picture a ten you can be sure it stirred me.

Been there, done that. Not me but others. If you are working in a genre know that you will be judged by what has come before you. It can’t be helped…

Present Tense 2016 © Charles Volkens

Golden 2017 © Marcela Angeles

Here’s what I didn’t judge on: categories. Architectural, Street, Landscape, Portrait — that’s not what this contest was about. I also didn’t judge them in the context of the whole history of photography that has come before. That’s not what we were judging here, only the best of this year’s submissions. So I voted for the pictures I thought best and newest regardless of category. The ones that astounded, or amused, or awoke something in me.

Great Blue Courtship 2016 © Cheryl Medow

Looking West 19 2003 © M. Robert Markovich

I have my biases, I can’t help it. I’ve been looking at and making pictures for sixty years. I do my best to appreciate work unlike my own and your good news is that I like a wide range of styles and subjects. Nonetheless, I’m sure I missed something while I was doing my looking and if it was your work, I’m sorry. That’s why the competition had three judges. So that there were enough eyes and opinions to make sure every picture got seen from multiple angles.

Progress 2016 © Erin Tengquist

The Coffee Shop 2018 © Larry Brownstein

And as proof the system works, here’s a story about how things went. In the first round of judging all three judges looked at the work of all 150 photographers. We judged ten pictures from each one, giving each picture a score from one to ten. I spent days on this part, making a first pass then going back a second time after I had some knowledge of the whole field, then a third time a few days later to see if my feelings had changed.

When all that was done, I sent off my results and the other judges did too. Then the scores of all three judges were compiled to choose the twenty semifinalists we would judge for top honors. To my complete astonishment, the other judges didn’t totally agree with me! Although we agreed on many choices, they picked some pictures I had left behind and they left behind a few of my very favorite pictures. How could that be? Taste, opinion, a predilection for one kind of photography over another, who knows?

And that leads me to my final observation…

Kittens, Cigarettes, and Gucci 2018 © Jamie Johnson

Mursi Women 2018 © Kelly Fogel

In the end, it’s entering that matters, not winning. It’s nice to win, of course, we all like validation and maybe a few bucks but it was always in the cards that 149 of you were not going to get that top prize. What you did get was the chance to look at your work from outside, to pick and choose with an eye to what the rest of the world sees and to reflect on your work and where it’s headed. The contest is a moment in time, a chance to put a pin in the map that marks where you are right now. The next time you enter a contest it will be an opportunity to put another pin in the map and between them, maybe you can see where you are headed.

Pinetop Perkins 2008 © Jérôme Brunet

Havana, Cuba 2018 © Kasia Trojak

The contest is the organizing impulse, the moment for you to take stock and see your work afresh. That’s valuable every day, win or lose. Good luck next time!

Focus Photo L.A. is a venerable competition sponsored twice yearly by Photo L.A. and A & I Fine Art + Photography. Hundreds of photographers vie to have their work printed, framed and hung at Photo L.A. where it is seen by thousands of visitors.

The illustrations in this story are the twenty semi-finalists from which the three winners were chosen. All of them will be on display at the show. Congratulations to every one of them!

Photo L.A. takes place this year at the Barker Hanger, Santa Monica, CA from January 31st to February 3, 2019

This article was also published at L’Oeil de la Photographie.

About the author: Andy Romanoff is a photographer and storyteller. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. Romanoff is also a correspondent at L’Oeil de la Photographie. You can find more of Romanoff’s work on his website.

source https://petapixel.com/2019/01/31/judging-a-photo-contest-my-experience-with-focus-photo-l-a/

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Road trippin’

HONORABLE MENTION ©Alberto Mesirca, Umm Al Zomool Road, United Arab Emirates

HONORABLE MENTION ©Dominic Palarchio, Shell Fire, Valmy, NV

©Amy Parrish, Places I Slept, Wendover, Utah

© Elizabeth Albert, Breakaway, Locations Unkown

©Helen Jones,Wild hearth air, Steens Mountain, Oregon

©Ashley Jones, Roadside Globe– Georgia, Savannah, GA

© Dora Kontha, Wanderlust, Iceland

©Amy Parrish, Places…