Juror James Gilmore’s Statement
I had a wonderful experience spending time with the photographs submitted for the North Valley Art League’s 2018 Regional Juried Photography Show. It was a complicated process to select a cohesive show of ninety or so images that reflect the excellence of the medium’s ever-changing ability to render the visions of its practitioners, who felt strongly enough about their commitment to our medium to make the brave effort to submit their work!
My initial baseline for judging the images was two-fold. First, a demonstration of confident technical proficiency on the part of the artist – no matter what the approach. I then looked for ideas, a personal or unique vision and sensibility; evidence that the artist was in control.
That said, I was definitely biased toward imagery that was both challenging and original – images that clearly differentiated between the camera’s ability to simply ‘record’, and the artist’s ability to understand photography’s unique ability to transform the three dimensional world into a clear intention on a two-dimensional surface – the photographic print, in all its various contemporary forms.
We are in an interesting time for our medium. Photography is evolving into something entirely new. Like most juried exhibitions, this selection of work is only a representation of my personal preferences on the given days of looking at the submissions. As previously stated, I look for technical competence, a signature style, a developed articulate vision…most of all, if the image captures my attention and retains my interest for more than a couple of minutes. My preference is not a final statement on the merits and artistic qualities of the images submitted.
Thank you to everybody for submitting such outstanding imagery, and congratulations to those who were selected for this exhibition. Finally, thanks to the North Valley Art League for the opportunity to jury such a great collection of work, and to Bonnie Lampley for her assistance in the process. I am quite happy with this show.
