Bring the Jury To Your Living Room by Steve Meltzer

QUESTIONS TO HELP YOU EVALUATE SLIDES

As a starting point, here are some questions to ask yourself as you view the slides to help you determine what should be praised or what needs to be fixed. Can I tell what this object is? Does the image sufficiently fill the frame? Are the colors bright? Are the colors accurate? Is the background helping or hurting the image? Do I like this as a picture? Is this an impressive image of the work? Is this more than just a record of the piece, does it have some oomph?

In early March I found myself not on the sunlit beaches of home in Florida, but in Chicago in a light snow flurry on a frigid 26-degree evening. I was there for a lecture on craft photography and the jury process. The snow that floated down on the Ukrainian Church Life building didn't seem to deter any of the over 100 beadworkers gathering for the presentation coordinated by the Bead Society of Greater Chicago (BSGC).

BSGC is an organization of nearly 346 regional artists who work together to provide programs in beadworking and marketing. The presentation was designed to help craftspeople better understand the jury process and how to create better jury slides.

My program had two parts, a hands-on photography workshop and a large public lecture/presentation in the evening. The photo workshop was the time to deal with issues like f-stops, shutter speeds, film and lighting. The evening lecture was for broader issues about the jury process and slide entries.

I announced to the attendees at the evening lecture that we were going to be the show promoters and jurors -- we were going to jury a show. I had asked Susan Kenyon, BSGC program chair, to ask attendees to bring a couple of slides of their work to the lecture. These slides were collected, loaded in slide trays and -- along with some of my own craft photos -- projected as the jury entries. I said that our job was to pick five artists for the show from our roughly 35 entries.

I turned on the slide projector and ran through the tray, allowing each image to be projected on screen for just five seconds. It was silent as I ran through the slides. This whole process took about six minutes.

When we were finished, I surprised everyone by asking not what they had selected, but what they felt. There was a pause, and then people shouted out things like "awed," "frustrated" and "impressed." To which my response was, "And that was only six minutes and 35 entries -- imagine what it feels like to jury several hundred or several thousand submissions."

Over the next two hours we discussed the jury process and went through the slides a second time, slowly. I talked about the quality, impact and effectiveness of the images. As we reviewed the slides, I deconstructed each one, pointing out the elements that made them work or fail. After going through a couple of dozen slides, I asked the group to try their hand at evaluating images. Not surprisingly, lots of people began to get right into it.

Too often artists take photos of their work without any standard of comparison, without any feedback, and perhaps without ever seeing another artist's slides.

When I write these columns about craft photography, I try to illustrate them with photographs. At this gathering of artists in Chicago, I realized how important it is to see jury slides projected, and how important it is for artists to see each other's work. It is a very powerful experience to sit in a semi-darkened room and watch your slides appear in the middle of many other slides. It is the kind of thing that will change the way you select images for submissions.

The slides I had added to the "entries" at the slide presentation for the beadworkers were among the only photos shot by a professional photographer. I think it was the first time many of the attendees had seen photos taken by a professional photographer projected so large against the dark of the room, amidst many photos taken by non-photographers. Work glowed with light, deep rich colors showed vibrantly, and the details in the work popped off the screen. Many were impressed, but one artist bristled at my photos. She expressed the concern that professionally shot photos are too clever and too commercial‚ and unfairly influence the jurors.

I responded to this by saying that while the professional shots might seem to give some entries an unfair edge, the real issue is that jurors have to be able to see work clearly. My job as a photographer is to present work well, but that is also the job of the artists who shoot their own works. Setting your work up on a pillow in your living room with just the ceiling light to light the image isn't going to be impressive to a jury, and the work isn't going to stand out. Get your own jury together I think everyone learned a lot from the mock jury, experiencing the process from the other side and taking the time to look at, think about and critically discuss photographs.

Most artists work alone. In the isolation of the studio it's easy to start talking to yourself and going a little nuts. Too often artists take photos of their work without any standard of comparison, without any feedback, and perhaps without ever seeing another artist's slides.

And that is where a group like BSGC plays such an important role in the art community. It gives artists a chance to interact with each other, to share knowledge, experience and grievances. Coming together, they provide peer support, create educational programs and hold community events that benefit everyone. And they can have a social experience, break bread and share the latest gossip about shows and people. There's a lot to be said about the value of local artist associations. If you are a member and your guild hasn't organized a group slide show and evaluation, you and others may find it beneficial to suggest it.

If you're not a member of a local arts or craft guild or association, you can still organize a session. You don't need an expert or an association to hold a mock jury to improve your photography. Get a bunch of local artists together, load up a slide tray with photos, pass around some popcorn and beverages, and pretend you are a jury. Go through the slides at five to seven seconds per set and see what it feels like. Go back and review the slides again. Don't evaluate the artwork itself, just the photos.

Be brutal in your honesty, but remember that the idea is to figure out what is being done right, not just what is wrong.

A UNIQUE EXAMPLE OF AN EFFECTIVE JURY SLIDE

Photo by Steve Meltzer When this image came on the screen during the mock jury in Chicago a collective gasp from the audience interrupted the silence. Not your typical jury slide, the music sheet used as a background creates a lovely image that violates many precepts of simplicity I've discussed in my columns. But because the porcelain earrings by artist Hedy Bienert are so simple -- just white circles with G clefs on them -- I felt that something had to be added to the image to enhance it. I could tell from the reaction of the audience that the non-plain background works here. Not all work will show up clearly with a creative background, so be sure to consider creative approaches to your photography carefully. Once you've shot your slides, your group session can help you decide whether or not your approach will work for jury slides.

Steve Meltzer, The Crafts Report's photography columnist, is a Sarasota, Fla.-based photographer. He can be reached via e-mail at: stevefoto@compuserve.com.

Copyright© 2001

JUNE 2001: TABLE OF CONTENTS