A juror's criteria

John Paul Caponigro was a 'juror' for the  Elements of water exhibition held by the Center for Fine Art Photography from February 19th to March 13th, 2010.

A short biog on John Paul Caponigro as seen on this website is included here:

John Paul Caponigro is an artist, author, educator, and digital pioneer. John Paul is one of Canon’s Explorers of Light and an Epson’s Stylus Pro. He is a contributing editor for Digital Photo Pro and a columnist for PhotoshopUser and Apple.com. John Paul’s work has been published widely. Well respected as an authority on creativity and fine digital printing . . .In 2002, Zoom Magazine named John Paul one of the 15 best artists of the past 30 years. In 2006, John Paul was inducted into the Photoshop Hall of Fame.

He suggests looking at work intensely raises many questions and I thought it was useful to list the questions here.

■Does a good idea make a good picture?
■Does the relevance social concerns make up for, compliment, or overtake a good picture?
■Does clearly describing a person, place, thing, or event make a good picture?
■Does a strong graphic structure make a good picture?
■Does a strong emotional appeal make a good picture?
■Are decisive moments magic moments?
■How much is enough?
■How much is too much?
■How much is too little?
■How much do small flaws reduce core strengths?
■What are the core strengths of an image?
■How are core strengths combined with and modified by other elements?
■When does abstraction become suggestive or storied?
■How do those vary from image to image and artist to artist?
■Are there consistent strategies that work?
■Are the notable exceptions?
■Does the challenge presented by outliers reinforce or weaken what’s been found?

Clearly not all questions are relevant to all art photography all of the time, however I thought it would be useful to return to the list from time to time when critiquing my own work and that of others.

I have also been reading Terry Barrett's 'Criticising Photographs' which gives an indepth guide as to how to view, evaluate and analyse photographs. I suppose I'm trying to 'hone' my skills in terms of what to look for in photography particularly with fine art photography where the impact is so much more subtle and easy to miss. And also how others view and critique images as well as the strategies used in developing a creative concept.

This quote below I also found to be true of my own photographic journey, particularly with regards viewing others photography and on selecting a subject to photograph myself.

'If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change' Wayne Dyer

A photograph I viewed six months ago I now see in a very different light today.  Six months later what more will I see. My perception of what a good image is is evolving. And likewise, the creative process to develop a photograph has changed significantly for me compared to this time last year.  A year from now, no doubt that will have changed again.