Whether we like it or not, photography competitions are part and parcel of the game for a good proportion of us. You could even look at our recent statement images membership application as a competition of sorts. But despite knowing their flaws, paying their high entry fees, some of us seem to be drawn to them like a moth to a flame.

In May 2011, I found myself somewhat perplexed to be sat around a table of peers, ready and waiting to slide through the mound of finalists for the London Street Photography Festival International Open Award and in September 2011 I found myself running the Street Reverb Reality Remade competition with Sony Ericsson.

This was never something I had banked on, applied for or even enquired about, but the experience I gained from it is something I will hold dear and take with me as I continue my photographic journey.

Until last year I never really entered many competitions, it just wasn’t something I cared about. This was until I was announced as a finalist for the Burn Emerging Photographer Fund, a competition I wasn’t going to enter until I received some strong encouragement from people close to the fund.

While the $10,000 prize didn’t reach my bank account – I didn’t win- my entry was well received, and from it’s “finalist” position it sprouted sales to international magazines with little effort to push it from myself.

For me, this was a turning point; I would now see competitions in a different light. They were no longer merely a label or something to stick on a CV, but from now on they would be more of a key to many different doors and opportunities, and at the same time a key point to how I would conduct a portion of my photographic career.

My first judging experiences running competitions and judging them came little over a year following these events, and the insights I achieved here is what I wish to share through this post.

First of all, I’ll talk a little about the structure of the judging for these particular competitions and although I know it’s by no mean the standard systems, it will however – if only in some small form – apply to others.

First up for the London Street Photography Festival, each judge was supplied with a random set of 90 entries with the goal of sifting these down to a choice of 5 move on to the next round.
Second round for this competition involved selecting 3 photographers from the pool of everyone’s previous 5’s selections. The reality remade competition was of a similar nature to this, tho I asked each judge to select 5 photographers from the whole submissions.
Finally for the London Street Photography Festival a “round the table” discussion would take place with approximately 30 entries whilst for the Reality Remade competition we ranked each and every semi finalist to create a list of finalists and then later have a discussion for the winner and for statement, well we’d view all the entrants together, have an open and frank discussion about each , but then volume wise this definitely will not be possible with all competitions.

For the first stage, Being assigned a random batch of photographers to select your 5 choices from is a pretty strange experience in my opinion. But with competitions such as the London Street Photography Festival competition where they receive some inordinate amount of entrants (1600-2000 in this case), this was definitely an easy way to reduce the workload of the judges involved. But it did come with some negative points.

The main issue here was that the random selection you were assigned could for instance consist of work, which doesn’t inspire you, maybe doesn’t really fit the theme, but then may inspire somebody else and could contain their desired winner. You could also be handed a strong selection of images containing say 10 entries that are exceptionally good work, whilst another judge could completely struggle to select any entries from their batch.

At this stage, many good photographers can be culled by what I thought of as “The Luck of the Draw”, and I’m talking about good photographers who may have otherwise reached the final. If a competition uses this method (and many do) there is no real way to ensure you’ll get past round one, it doesn’t matter how good your work is or well received it may be, you are at the whim of a single individual and you just have to hope that they play by the rules, have no hidden agendas to uncover some underdog or peoples choice angle and that they get the rules of the theme, rules and competition as a whole!

The second phase, choosing photographers to make a semi final of sorts, is a little more complex and in some instances can involve some strange thinking and guess work. And no, I’m not kidding.

Here judges are introduced with the possibility of taking photographers into the final where they could potentially win to prize and title etc.
Any photographer failing to get a single vote here is out, yet one who gets many votes is not the winner (or at least not yet).
All will seem well here, until you realize that you can only select a limited number of photographers (3 or 5 in my cases). By this point the pool of potential candidates should be strong, and failing this you should have your initial selections in there to continue with. The problems arise when you play the guessing game as some judges may be tempted to do.

For example: Photographer A has fantastic work and a broad appeal, however, they aren’t your winner of choice, but maybe a good runner up? So you consider at this point that some of the other jurors are likely to vote for them, and you’d rather bring in an alternative to the table, maybe a solid third or fourth placed vote that you feel may otherwise be overlooked for the more popular options?

It’s at this point that some good contenders could be lost in the mix if several members of the Jury have the same thinking, particularly if someone is more keen on pushing the boundaries, creating discussion and being “different” rather than simply selecting deserving winners and finalists.

The final stage is where the winners are chosen.

Right now, your in the hands of the judges, you’ve got to hope they stick to any given theme, rules and by their choices as there is always the possibility of strong personalities being able to get what they want through the power of persuasion alone.

At this stage there is more taken into consideration than just the images. It’s about the sequencing, the artist statement, the biography of the photographer, their reputation, history of winning awards and how the work compares to other well known or award winning pieces. Say, if the work is reminiscent of some amazing work, which has won a previous competition, then chances are, someone could raise this as a negative point in an effort to not have the competition follows in the footsteps of another.

This point didn’t particularly come up in my case, but through speaking with other photographers, it had in theirs and from the point of someone who has been responsible for running a competition, I can sort of understand it.

Other possible weights could be placed on underdog stories, shock and awe, how appropriate the work is, whether the photographer is a deserving winner, judging whether the photographer is arrogant and expects to win, and whether the work fits into some pre defined ideal of what the winner of the competition should be.

With all of this in mind, I will take the following notes with me into any competition:

Be consistent with the images.

It’s obvious, but you’re only as strong as your weakest image. And like it or not, a strong theme, idea or purpose to the images can beat a random selection hands down every time.

Have a well-written statement.
The statement should add more insight to the work including how and why it was created, a poorly written statement could be the difference between being a winner and not at a close tie. The statement is your representative to speak for your work when you can’t. You should also keep that in mind that it should aim to answer questions raised through the work.
Get someone else to read it for you and for the sake of humanity run a spell check on it.

Play by the rules.
Make sure you fit the theme and history of the competition. You’re not as likely to progress if you’re not a good fit for what they want to present as a winner.

Do your research, look at past winners if they have them, or look at what they use to promote the competition. With first year competitions it’s hard to judge, and this is why some have fewer entries, especially if they are quite prescriptive with the theme. But as they don’t have this history you will have more chance to help shape it.

But look at what they present as a whole, if they have a history of showcasing portraiture, hold back on that reportage submission and save the cash for something more appropriate.

Try to avoid direct comparisons to the work of others.
This may sound strange, especially after what I’ve just said, but if you submit a story which many others have covered, you are putting yourself in direct competition with everyone else. We saw that this year with the statement membership applications. At times it seemed that everyone had covered a boxer or fighter of some sort, with few taking a unique approach to the subject, and it only showed the flaws of some of the projects as we could compare the like for like.

The last thing you want a judge to say is “oh, another…” so I’d suggest to just steer clear, or document it in a completely new way!

Take note of timing.
You don’t want to jumpt the gun and enter a competition straight away and at the same time you don’t want to run out of time.
Take your time, do your research and pay attention to your submission. A lot of photographers make this mistake of last minute submissions and see the deadline more as the date when they should submit on rather than the last given opportunity.
Last minute submissions rarely get anywhere and you can usually spot them a mile off, they’re the ones who have little mistakes, poor writing, grammer and spelling in their statements and more than likely they’ve not let their edit sink in and it will show.

Add to this that a lot of people are submitting at the same time you could end up being hit with some technical difficulties and your entry could be lost, it’s just not worth the risk.

Don’t take it personally.
With the luck of the draw and anomalies in other rounds of judging, good images and photographers can easily fall by the way side and it isn’t always because they didn’t like your work. Keep your chin up and keep plodding on.

This is especially true when it comes to membership applications such as statements. Sometimes we loved the work that an applicant had submitted but felt it may not have been a good fit with us, nothing wrong with that, and you’d definitely not want to lose confidence if that was the case, so pick up and move on to better opportunities.

Where there’s feedback, take it.
It’s rare that competitions will offer feedback on submissions, especially for free. But should they offer it, then you should jump to the chance to receive it. I’m not talking about entering into a discourse with the judges here, but maybe just receiving a note on why your entry failed, or maybe a critique on the work overall. You entered the competition valuing the reputation of the judges and their experience, so you should surely want to hear their thoughts on your work!

With the reality remade competition, whilst the judges themselves didn’t personally enter into any discussions, it was also nice to see that the community themselves got together to discuss each others work

If you have any tips for people entering competitions, or a story you’d like to share, add it to the comments section!

Exciting things are happening at Statement Images. After our recent call for new members we are pleased to announce three new members will be joining the collective. The successful candidates chosen were Daniel Patrick Lilley, Alessandro Marchi, and Paris Visone.

 
2012 may still be in its infancy, but it’s already shaping up to be a busy and exciting year for us here at Statement. If you follow us on twitter or elsewhere there’s a chance, just maybe, that you might have heard of our new members call. The submissions are rolling in and I can say we’re very much looking forward to going through them. But if you like to leave things to the last minute then fear not, you have until 12pm GMT on Friday 20th January 2012 to get that submission in. So no more dithering, don’t think about it, just do it and see what happens.

If you’d like to read some background info on Statement before making your submission then you can find out more about us in this profile on the excellent Fototazo website.

So that’s looking to the future, but what are we up to now? Well all of the current Statement photographers are busy working on new projects and ideas. Although it’s too early to share details just yet, we can update on what a few of the members have been up to.

Robert Ormerod has a 5 page spread in the January edition of Amateur Photographer magazine which you can seen at the bottom of this post. The article includes an interview with Rob and featured work from his Red Road project which can be seen in multimedia form here. The project was selected as part of the Press Photographers Year 2011.

In what has been quite a busy month already, Rob also contributed a 6 page article with photographs on Edinburgh for the current in flight magazine of Sri Lankan Airlines (see right), and had images accompanying an article by Peter Ross in the Scotland on Sunday.

Finally, Rob has had work included in two books. The first published by the Missouri Photo Workshop includes images from Rob’s project ‘The Resurrection of Eddie Troy’. The second book, which also includes work by fellow Statement member James Dodd, is published by the Magenta Foundation. Both Rob and James received honourable mentions in the Magenta Flash Forward Emerging Photographer 2011 selection. The book can be purchased (alongside a pdf preview) from the Foundations website.

Here at Statement we have many discussions between ourselves about alternative funding models, reaching different audiences, and how to utilise the multitude of platforms and formats out there (think galleries, books, editorial, broadcast, online, and social media). With this in mind James Dodd has posted a short piece on his decision to move away from Flickr and about why photographers post work online in general. Expect to see more articles surrounding the changing face of photography from James in the future.

In terms of showcasing work, Sunday Morning Sales, the project on carboot sales by James was recently featured by Fraction Magazine. The edit on Fraction’s site contains images not shown before.

Finally, at the top of this post is a short video produced by James featuring everything he ate in the first 6 months of 2011. The project started after he experienced dietary problems in 2007 and his doctor advised him to keep a food diary. Speaking about the project he said “Feasted is a photographic exploration of the simplest terms, and while at times it may hint to my tastes and life style, its sole aim is for me to discover the root of my dietary issues.” You can see read more on his website here.

When not working on projects and commissions, Statement photographer James Dodd is involved in running street photography website Street Reverb.

The site has recently been holding a competition with the support of Sony Ericsson Xperia Studios. Finalists were provided with a Sony Ericsson Xperia ray handset and asked to complete a new body of work around the theme “Reality remade”.

In support of the competition James also featured in a video with fellow competition judge Peter Dench talking about street photography with the Xperia.

The finalists have completed working on their projects and the winner will be announced soon.

See the Street Reverb website for more details.

Statement photographers James Dodd and Robert Ormerod both shoot weddings, we thought we’d get them to talk about some of their experiences:
“Wedding photography tends to get a bad rap in most photography circles. I’ve spoken to many photographers and with most it seems wedding photography is almost seen as an easy option, a way of selling out or admitting defeat from “real photography” and that the photographers themselves are selling out.

Personally I don’t view it in this way. Wedding photography is some of the most difficult work I do and is almost a perfect training ground for my personal work.

A good wedding for example contains a mixture of portraiture and candid moments, it brings skills of reading events before they happen, anticipating the moment and thinking on your feet. They enable me to try new things which I can take to my personal work and I can bring things to them from my personal work.

I think because I’m not solely a wedding photographer, and because I only shoot a handful each year, weddings stay fresh and don’t appear as much like work to me. Obviously working with Ben [James shoot's weddings with fellow photographer Ben Roberts] makes it so much easier as we’re able to constantly help each other out, trying new things whilst the other gets the more expected stuff. It’s also great to have someone about you can have laugh with.

I find that weddings are truly joyous occasion and to be present and to be paid to document them is something I would never have expected to be so much fun. But I do enjoy them and look forward to each one I shoot. “

James Dodd
jayandben.com

“There seems to be a formula in wedding photography set by many years of precedent regarding what people expect from your pictures:  Moving away from this formula and producing something interesting is always a constant challenge.

Although most weddings are set around the same structure, each day is different and involves it’s own unique challenges.  In my opinion weddings constitute a life changing milestone and there are some great moments which are just waiting to be documented.  I think of it as being given access to go in and record these moments just as I would shoot any other photo journalistic story.  There are some great themes to follow and convey visually like growth and fulfillment as a person as well as the possibility of new life.

Before each wedding I get inspired by looking at some great photography in general.  I don’t think you can draw a line between wedding photography, photojournalism and documentary.  I believe it to be fundamentally the same thing so I like to look at work by photographers who think along similar lines.

There is an old expression which goes something like: “photograph a funeral like a wedding and a wedding like a funeral.”  I don’t exactly follow this to the letter but I think there is definitely a useful message there: in other words try to break the mold… or better yet create your own. ”

Robert Ormerod
robertormerodweddingphotographer.com

Still finding time to take photographs whilst on tour, here’s a sneak peak at some upcoming work from Statement Images member Russell Bates, who is currently on tour with his band The Crookes.

October 17, 2011

Fight Night

Mixed Martial Arts Fight Night
Tumwater, Washington USA
October 15, 2011
Photos by Tom Hyde

Nearly 2,000 people paid $25 or more to crowd into an indoor arena for a night of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fights. The amateur fighters hailed from regional gyms. This relatively small event still had the feel of an underground sport which, until recently, all of MMA was to some extent. Now it’s big, big money and its popularity is spreading internationally.

In this small city in the Pacific Northwest, black chain-link fencing surrounds the fight ring in the center of the spare complex. Folding chairs sprawl out across the concrete floor of the former indoor Go-Kart track as heavy metal blares from loud speakers. Patrons shop the tables along the walls for the latest MMA clothing, posters, dvds, books, magazines, fight paraphernalia, trading cards and action figures.

Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a full contact combat sport that allows the use of both striking and grappling techniques, both standing and on the ground, including boxing, wrestling, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, muay Thai, kickboxing, karate, judo and other styles. The roots of the sport go back as far as the ancient Greek sport of Pankration. More modern roots can be found in the Brazilian sport of Vale Tudo. The sport came to North America in 1993. At one time vilified for its no-hold violence and brutality, major organizers of the sport cleaned up the act over the past decade by instituting new rules aimed at minimizing the most serious injuries and pushing for regulation. MMA is now a sanctioned sport in 45 U.S. States. The U.S. Army now has its own sanctioned MMA events.

In just the past five years, MMA has jumped from an underground sport to one of the hottest new entertainment powerhouses complete with clothing lines. And in 2010, pay-per-view MMA events in the United States raked in estimated figures in the hundreds of millions in gross sales putting it on par with boxing and wrestling. In fact, with younger viewers, MMA has likely surpassed boxing in popularity.

It is both a burgeoning cultural phenomena and a major new emerging business market. The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), the largest of the commercial MMA ventures, has an estimated worth of $1 billion to $2 billion on Wall Street. Already a player on the world stage, the goal of the UFC is to expand the sport into India and China in the coming years.

In 2011, Nike started a new MMA division for its sports clothing line and began endorsing fighters.

Broken noses, broken ribs, blood on the white mat and hurt pride were on the fight card Saturday night as the young contenders fought their way up hoping for a shot at the pros and big money.

Tom Hyde is a photographer living in Washington State, USA.

Submissions are now closed. Many thanks to everyone who submitted. An announcement will be made in due course.

DEADLINE FOR NEW MEMBER SUBMISSIONS HAS BEEN EXTENDED UNTIL 12PM GMT FRIDAY 20 JANUARY 2012

Call for new members

Statement Images is opening its doors to new membership applications. We are looking for motivated individuals who have an interest in the people and stories around them; who want to communicate their unique ideas through photography, film making, multimedia and the written word; and who would like to help us shape the future development of Statement in exciting new ways.

If you are interested in joining the collective, then please submit your portfolio (along with a link to your work), and a written statement to:

join@statementimages.co.uk

Deadline for applications has been extended to 12pm GMT on Friday 20 January 2012.

Successful candidates will be selected by current members and a final decision will be announced in early February 2012.

Submissions guidelines:

Digital submissions should be sent to join@statementimages.co.uk.
You should submit at least 2 feature stories. Each feature should take one of the following forms:
i: A photographic feature consisting of no more than 20 images.
ii: A short film no longer than 10 minutes.
iii: A multimedia presentation no longer than 10 minutes.
Email submissions with a greater attachment size of 5MB should be sent via a service such as: www.yousendit.com.
The resolution of each digital image should not exceed 1000 pixels on the longest side.
Images should be in JPEG form with compression of 8-10.
Submitted images should be numbered sequentially, in the order you wish them to be viewed and contain your name. eg: photographer_01.jpg etc.
Images should have captions/descriptions where appropriate, included via meta information or a separate file.
Video submissions should be made via web link on services such as www.vimeo.com/ or DVD entries (please contact join@statementimages.co.uk for a postal address).
Please be sure to include a statement about your work, a resume or bio and any current contact information.

About Statement Images

Statement Images is a collective with a curiosity for the world which they wish to explore through imagery, whether still or moving. The primary objective of the collective is to offer a support framework for it’s members and to encourage collaborations and knowledge sharing.

The collective launched in 2009 and aims to meet the challenges of a rapidly changing industry by supporting its members and helping them bring stories with purpose to a wide audience.

Olympic Dreams in Amateur Photographer

August has been a busy month for Statement members. So here’s a round up of all the latest goings on.

James Dodd’s project Olympic Dreams was named as Anthony Bannon’s Juror pick in the Daylight Magazine/CDS Photo Awards. Dodd’s project was selected in the ‘Work in Process’ category by Bannon who is the Director of the prestigious George Eastman House, the oldest museum in the world dedicated to photography and based in New York.

Update: The exhibition for the awards, including an image from Olympic Dreams is now open. The exhibition runs September 19th – December 22nd 2011 with a reception opening on October 4th, 6-8pm. The exhibition can be found at Porch and University Galleries, Center for Documentary Studies, Duke University, 1317, W Pettigrew St, Durham, NC 27705.

Olympic Dreams was also featured in the July issue of Amateur Photographer magazine. The images were accompanied by an interview with James talking about how he approached the project and about his photography in general.

Red Road featured in BJP

Robert Ormerod’s Red Road project, which has already been shown as part of the Press Photographers Year 2011 exhibition and published in the Sunday Times, featured in the August issue of the British Journal of Photography. The work is also included in an exhibition about the Red Road flats organised by the Scottish Press Photographers Association at the Hidden Lane Gallery in Glasgow. The exhibtion runs from the 3rd to 30th September.

Mark Lomas has been busy editing footage and composing music for a series of short ‘in competition’ videos filmed in collaboration with James Dodd. The films focus on young paralympic hopefuls and were made for Disability Sport Events, English Federation of Disability Sport and Nationwide to mark one year to go until the start of the Paralympics in London. Videos featuring Meggan Dawson-Farrell and Tom Minchington can be seen on Statement Images here.

Amongst the successes and hard work we do have to announce some sad news however. Founding Statement Images member Gary Taylor has decided to move on from the collective. Gary is currently working outside of the photography and film making field and we wish him well for the future.

Moving on from your first long body of photographical work and beginning something new can be a difficult process.   To begin with, for me, there was a feeling of excitement at the prospect of starting afresh; anticipation of a landscape of interesting and challenging stories.  I knew I wanted to focus on another story in the UK and that I wanted to do so in colour.

But as the days moved by and I still had yet to settle on an idea, this feeling of freedom and elation quickly turned to frustration.  My mind became a revolving door of ideas: a process of thoughts flowing in and quickly being discounted for one reason or another.  Many days were spent at my desk lamenting my inability to find direction and to settle on an idea.

Ideas were rejected for a multitude of reasons: they had been done before, were too similar to previous work, were too similar to someone else’s project and the all too familiar rejection due to budgetary constraints.  Some of this reasoning was sensible and rational but a large proportion was probably not.

I did what most people would do and sought advice.  The process of discussing my ideas was really valuable but it also had its own pitfalls as I probably took more notice of other people’s opinions than my own.

In truth I was guilty of over thinking and what I was actually most afraid of was that I would never produce anything ever again (which is pretty improbable).  The best advice I was given was to forget everything and just go for the story I myself thought was most interesting and needed to be told: this passion would then shine through in my work.   And so I settled on a story I had come across a year ago; a seed of an idea that had been planted half way through my previous project and I got started.

When I was first starting out as a photographer it used to be common place on trips abroad, or even on days and nights out, for my partner to point out that I should put the camera down and enjoy living in moments that I’m trying to capture.

Admittedly, as I’m sure many photographers do, I often got carried away especially when the subject is something visually exciting. As I became more immersed in visual imagery and this argument continued to pop up it got me asking: what am I trying to capture here?

For many photographers the process of image making is not simply a way to make a living and you can’t simply draw a line between time spent working and time off as might be the case in other professions. For many of us it can be a process of developing as a person. Indeed many projects seem to fall into the category of “voyage of self discovery”.

For me I think I take pictures of my life because I’m still trying to understand myself and my style. It’s similar to when you write things down and they become clearer. Although, at the same time perhaps, there is an element of trying to hold on to my youth: to capture moments in order to hold on to them.

But on recent trips I began to see my partners point: there can be a point that your enjoyment of life can be affected by constant image making and as I have grown as a person and a photographer my ability to discern when a moment is worth capturing has also grown. Most importantly, when an image is worth taking, it’s about learning to strike a balance between looking through a lens and experiencing life. It’s about letting go and living in that moment and connecting with what’s happening in front of you.

No, it’s not the 2012 games just yet, but you can already feel the hype building. Within minutes of turning on a television set we’re presented with some reference to the London Olympiad and as the months fly by you can expect nothing more than for the anticipation to rise… even if you didn’t get to buy any tickets!

One thing that struck me in all of the excitement is the increasingly visible profile of our disabled athletes. I’ve been photographing disability sport for a good few years now and have noticed this rise in media presence at some of the events I’ve attended. In addition to winning the contract to cover the 2012 Paralympics games, Channel 4 have already screened programmes like ‘That Paralympic Show and ‘Inside Incredible Athletes’.

Having a mainstream broadcaster ready to air 150 hours of coverage during the 12 days of competition raises the Paralympics from ‘niche’ to that of a major sporting event.

Advertisers seem to have taken this on board too. Those carbon fibre bladed legs as worn by Oscar Pretorius seem to flash across our screens at every opportunity. Even if the slightly cynical side of me strays into thinking companies like BP want to be seen as inclusive in their advertising so they can portray themselves as being more socially conscious, I still see the trend as being a positive one.

As someone who has worked with people with disabilities in education for 10 years now I think anything that can raise awareness and break down those barriers is a positive move. A prosthetist i’ve been filming with recently told me that many of the young athletes he has worked with are proud to show off their prosthetic legs where once they used to try to hide them away.

So back to the title of this post ‘Beyond 2012′. Myself and fellow Statement member James Dodd recently spent a weekend filming with junior disabled athletes for Disability Sport Events, the English Federation of Disability Sport and their sponsors Nationwide. The video at the top of this post is just a brief snippet from that event.

Inspired by gold medallists such as Ellie Simmonds and Sam Hynd at the Beijing Paralympics all of the young athletes we filmed with are eagerly looking at 2012 and beyond to the 2016 games in Rio. And judging by their enthusiasm I sincerely expect they’ll make it.

Yet in a sporting environment where sponsorship is vital to be able to organise and run events, and indeed compete in them, I can only hope the legacy of supporting disabled sport in Britain continues past London’s brief window of opportunity next summer, so that our future Paralympic hopefuls get the best chance possible.

As one young athlete said to me “we should get to do what ambulant athletes do, there’s no difference between us”. Which is a fair point, and with that I feel I should go back through this article and edit all of the times I’ve written ‘disabled athlete’ to just leave the word ‘athlete’.

Congratulations to Statement Images photographer Robert Ormerod who had his photo essay Red Road selected for The Press Photographer’s Year 2011.

The essay follows the lives of the residents of Red Road flats in Glasgow. Red Road is Scotland’s main centre for accommodating asylum seekers who have recently arrived in the country. It houses several hundred of a total of around 2000 asylum seekers living in Glasgow.

An exhibition of all the selected images can be seen at the National Theatre, London until 4th September 2011.

A multimedia version of the essay can be seen here.

"The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once." - Albert Einstein

I have always had a fascination with taking photos of things I cannot see, or more specifically, I try to capture those fleeting instinctual glimpses from the periphery undefined and unencumbered by my brain’s perception of time.

This coincides well with my bad habit of taking photos from my car while driving back country roads. This, in turn, derives from my good habit of taking a camera with me everywhere coupled with an obsessive need to see, and hopefully, see differently. I usually don’t show these photos to anyone, it’s more my secret obsession.

No, they are not perfect photos and yes, they most often do look like a two-year-old’s finger paint smudges. But every once in a while I catch rare fleeting surrealistic glimpses of a world I cannot see and possibilities I could not have otherwise perceived. As I look more and more, and attempt to see, I gain appreciation in questions posed and left unanswered and in the perfection of the less perfect but more instinctual.

Tom Hyde
Statement Images

A torn remnant of an American flag with a personal message written to Kurt Cobain lies along the muddy banks of the Wishkah River and under a bridge once frequented by the reluctant rock star in the hard luck milltown of Aberdeen, Washington USA. The bridge has become an unofficial shrine to the fallen Cobain.

Statement photographer Tom Hyde’s photo essay “After the Fall” recently received an honorable mention and was listed as one of the top 30 submissions in the Emerging Photographer Grant sponsored by David Alan Harvey’s Burn Magazine and awarded by the Magnum Cultural Foundation, a non-profit created by the members of Magnum Photos. The essay will appear on Burn Magazine (www.burnmagazine.org) in the coming year. Judges for the 2011 grant were Trent Parke, Narelle Autio, Maggie Steber, and Barbara Strauss.

After the Fall is an exploration of the greater valley where the photographer lives in Washington State USA, an area best known for clearcut logging, rain, the birthplace of Kurt Cobain, Nirvana and Grunge music, and the cultural aftermath of unsustainable resource extraction.

“I find one of the most difficult things to do as a photographer is to be able to step back enough to see with fresh eyes those things you see everyday in your own backyard,” Hyde said. “This work is a first step in a long-term personal project.”

Hyde joined Statement Images in 2010. He has a background in conservation, environmental policy and journalism.

A new multimedia piece by Statement Images photographer Robert Ormerod is being featured on the Sunday Times website. Focusing on the lives of asylum seekers in Glasgow the work was first printed in the Sunday Times ‘Spectrum’ magazine in March.

You can view the multimedia essay on Statement Images here.

The opening will include a talk from the Scottish refuge council and aims to bring attention to the pressures facing asylum seekers and mental illness inside the asylum system.

Robert will say a few words about his project and will also be available to answer questions on his work from 4pm-6pm.

More details can be found here.

The Star Gazy Boat Project.

Earlier this year I accompanied James Stier from Sheffield based production company Voidcomp to the small twin fishing villages of Cawsand and Kingsand in Cornwall. We were there to film an EU funded youth project organised by Leo Kaserer. The idea behind the project was to take a group of young people with challenging backgrounds from around Europe and put them into a new supportive environment and give them an objective to achieve.

In this case the group were challenged to restore a hundred year old fishing boat that had been left to decay for many years. The group were guided in their task by Malcolm, the last remaining fisherman in the village.

We made two trips to Cornwall to film the project and everybody made us extremely welcome. Despite the 6 am starts and long days (and a few unplanned swims in a very cold January sea) we really didn’t want to leave. Big thanks to everyone who helped us out, from those who made it possible to have the Christmas lights turned on for an evening, to Leo for putting us up at his house, to the young people who put up with us filming their every move and to the fisherman Malcolm who took us out on the fishing boat.

The film, which is currently being edited, will be used to promote the project and hopefully secure more funding so that similar events can happen in the future.

Working very much on the fly the crew, featuring camera operators Gary and Mark with support from James Stier and Paul Oxborough, filmed the narrative parts of the video at various locations throughout the city. This included a key scene in The Little Flower Shop on Abbeydale Road. Many thanks to them for not only allowing us to use the premises to film but also for being game enough to feature in the video!

The single ‘Godless Girl’ is out now with the band’s debut album ‘Chasing After Ghosts’ following on the 21st March. The band will be touring the UK and Europe from March until the end of May.

Video Directed by The Crookes

Girl – Kirsty Elizabeth Huzzard

Film by Statement Images.

Mark Lomas – Camera/Editing
Gary Taylor – Camera Assistant
James Stier – Assistant Director
Paul Oxborough – Gaffer

Tom is based in Washington State in the United States and is Statement’s first member from outside of the UK. He began taking photos at the age of 10 and after working in environmental policy for local government and as a journalist he decided to pursue his passion for photography.

He is a member of the NPPA (National Press Photographers Association) and SPJ (Society for Professional Journalists) and is currently working on a long-term documentary project on the largest water reclamation project in the United States.

You can view Tom’s portfolio here

Robert hails from Scotland and after studying a degree in journalism discovered his interest in photography.

He worked as a press photographer at an agency in Aberdeen before graduating from the NCTJ (National Council for the Training of Journalists) Photo-Journalism course at Sheffield College.

Robert currently works as a freelance photographer in and around Glasgow and is pursuing various long-term projects.

You can view Rob’s portfolio here

We look forward to featuring the work of these exciting additions to the Statement roster in the coming weeks and months and we would like to once again thank everyone who took the time to apply.

If you wish to find out more about any of the members of Statement Images please check the Photographers section where each member can be contacted via their individual page. Any other enquiries should be directed to info@statementimages.co.uk.

Recently described by the …The Observer’s New Review as “a riveting series of photographs”, the exhibition features 8 images presented in light-boxes within an atmospheric darkened gallery space.

The exhibition marks the halfway point between the start of Dodd’s photographic project and the 2012 games.

The exhibition runs until the 30th September, but will be moving on to new locations shortly (more details to come).

Photograph by Mark Lomas

Photograph by James Dodd

To celebrate our 1 year anniversary – slightly belated as we launched in April 2009 – we are opening our doors to membership applications.

If you are interested in joining the collective, then please submit your portfolio (along with a link to your work), a statement and or a photographer bio to:

join@statementimages.co.uk

Deadline for applications is: 12pm GMT on 1st September 2010

A decision will be made and announced shortly after this and feedback for applicants will be available.

Printed portfolios or books can be seen if desired. Should they wish to, applicants can make their own arrangements to deliver and collect their portfolios. Statement Images members take no responsibility for any portfolios sent by the post. All materials should be clearly labeled with contact details and will be ready for collection in September.

Submissions guidelines:

• Digital submissions should be sent to join@statementimages.co.uk
• You should submit no less than 10 images, but no more than 50.
• Email submissions with a greater attachment size of 5MB should be sent via a service such as: http://www.yousendit.com
• The resolution of each digital image should not exceed 1000 pixels on the longest side.
• Images should be in JPEG form with compression of 8-10.
• Submitted images should be numbered sequentially, in the order you wish them to be viewed and contain your name. eg: photographer_01.jpg etc.
• Images should have captions/descriptions where appropriate, included via meta information or a separate file
• Video submissions should be made via web link on services such as http://www.vimeo.com/ or DVD entries (please contact join@statementimages.co.uk for a postal address)
• Please be sure to include a statement about your work, a resume or bio and any current contact information.
• If you wish to submit printed works, portfolio or books for consideration, then please contact join@statementimages.co.uk to make arrangements.
• If you would like to make arrangements collect your physical submissions you may do so by contacting join@statementimages.co.uk

If your portfolio don’t meet these requirements then it may not be considered.

We look forward to your submissions.

Please help support the haiti appeal.

Photographers are auctioning off images in the following flickr group:

www.flickr.com/groups/charityprintauctions/

The image to the right is my offering, which will be printed at 16.5 × 11 inches (A3ish).

To place a bid on any of the images in the group do so on the images comments section. The amount of your bid that will be donated to the charity and the phootographer will pay the print and delivery fees.

There are more details in the group at:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/charityprintauctions/

and you can bid on my print at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamesdodd/4276152805/

update:

the print sold for £80 ($130) to tala- who chose this image (after I gave the winner the chance to chose almost any image from my collection as opposed to the original offered).

http://jamieslist.wordpress.com/2009/12/10/internship-for-james-nachtwey-nyc-unpaid/

please not that in this scenario boy could be girl and girl could be boy, boy and girl could also be the same person, in which case would usually be a girl but also possibly a boy:

boy: hi, girl.
girl: hi boy… oh wow! whats that?
b: it’s a film camera… used to belong to my dad or something?
g: nice.
b: oh you’re one of them beautiful people aren’t you?… I have an idea.
g: what?
b: lets go to the woods and you can take off your clothes and be mysterious and stuff.
g: that sounds like it’s just up my street because I’m so quirky and unique.
b: yea you are… we both are… and so is my photography.

[group hug]

OK, that’s one scenario, but for anyone still wondering what type of photography I’m discussing, here’s a nice little list of some common features for you.

naked people in wilderness (with or without snow), people facing away as they enter water, people facing away in wilderness (with or without snow), naked people in water. naked people looking vulnerable. deers and similar animals (including horses + with or without snow). hunters. dead animals. dead animals on walls. dead animals as rugs. dead deers. dead horses. bears. strange trees. strange dead trees. mysterious floating limbs. people who seem to be trapped in the past. mysterious limbs entering water. portraits of the elderly looking vulnerable. people photographed naked on their bed looking vulnerable. just pretty girls. just boobs of pretty girls. people wearing masks. etc. etc.

I’m pretty sure most photographers could tick a few off on that list (myself included), so it’s not that I don’t like the subjects or the aesthetics. It’s more how they seem like the easy option. The HDR, sunsets and kittens for the more established tastes of photographers.

I just fail to connect with these sorts of pictures anymore. For most the results seem empty and meaningless surface layered images, but with the added fluff of poetic quotes, song lyrics, artist statements and a bit mystery to go along with the T&A!

There are hundreds of photographers out there produce similar work. Similar looking subjects in similar looking surroundings, composed in similar ways. So it’s no surprise that you may find that this work can blur together.

And because there are so many photographers producing this sort of work I really do have to question whether they are indeed showing parts of their lives, or whether it’s simple a more contrived process, all in the aim of getting a bit of attention.

Anyway, I suppose the thing I’m trying to question is that if these images are preconceived, what is the point in taking them? Can they truly hold any more value than a simple landscape? A pretty pretty? a kitten or puppy? or baby in a bucket?

Are these images simply destined to be the new commercial wall art? The HDR sunsets for those with a more educated photography palette?

Then again, maybe it is me who is missing something? Maybe there are thousands of  young, skinny, beautiful and naked people out there, dancing in the moonlit woods, around campfires while people take their pictures, performing for the cameras. Young, skinny, beatiful and naked people who sit on their beds looking expressionless, while deers stalk the outsides of the snow ridden fields and stuffed bears stand tall in the hallway on leopard skin rugs?

I have two 30 second videos featured in art in unusual spaces as part of the Short Shorts showreel.

Thes videos are excerpts from the ballroom video and some swimming footage.

The projection will (hopefully) play from dusk until dawn daily between 4th dec -27th feb.

42 New Briggate
Leeds, LS1 6NU.

www.artinunusualspaces.co.uk/home/

“Knowing it’s not a formula, I know that I have to keep shaking these up, so I do something fast, then do something that takes years, trying different things. Do the stuff where I work alone, do the stuff where I work collaboratively. Sometimes it will fall flat, but hopefully magic will strike at some point.”

Alec Soth – Interviewed by Big Red & Shiny

While I usually find photographers musings on why they do what they do, to be more than a little whimsical, I really did agree with Soth here.
There isn’t a set formula to photography (books and project making) or if there is people keep it to themselves. So to a certain extent a perfect method or system can’t exist. And despite this, I still search for one. And in a way photography almost becomes a never ending quest for the the holy grail. My only hope is that I don’t ever find it, because at that point I may possibly lose interest in photography.

We buy into it on some level tho. Even if we are only using it as more of a networking attempt and news distribution platform than a check up on the celebs and gossip sheet.

Anyway, our account is @statementimages. Be sure to follow us.

We’ll be updating it with site activity, project news and loads of stuff from the larger community base we’re part of.

Excluding newspapers from the equation, paid for news content happens every day, and people don’t seem to mind the cost!
It comes in the form of television fees such as TV Licenses, satellite and cable subscriptions etc; all of which covers the costs of all those wonderful instant and up to the minute news services we can watch from the comfort of our arm chairs.

In spite of this trent, the UK general population are not willing to pay for online news content according to a recent study.

So what is it about the internet and newspapers that makes people say no?

The report by Lightspeed Research, which was commissioned for digital research outfit: The Global Web Index; found that less than 10% of the UK population are currently willing to pay for online news content. Which must surely send alarm bells ringing in ever newspaper office in the land as UK newspapers look towards the web 2.0 boom as a revenue platform. This surely begs the question: can there be any future for UK’s newspapers in the internet marketplace?

And why don’t people want to pay for content? Have the many years of free services from newspaper websites spoiled us? Do people believe a free alternative will still be available? Is written news no longer a valued?  Or is it that people now see news as a free commodity attached onto their entertainment and broadband subscription packages?

Personally… I’d speculate that it would be the latter.

Today people get news content delivered to them by many different platforms… all of which seem carry the same basic content (plus the odd exclusives and feature content). So if one of them decides to kidnap their content and demand ransom for it’s return, it really doesn’t suprise me that people would rather move to an alternative, even if it is at the cost of quality, just so they can keep it free!

The concept of the “free news” has been around for a while. I’m not talking about salon chats and gossip, but the delivery of real news on different platforms. And newspapers have failed to deal with all of them. Some companies evolved or branched out into these new an alien areas, but it’s never been that successful. From radio, TV, teletext (don’t laugh at the inclusion of teletext, when the digital switch over comes many people are going to mourn the death of ceefax) and now the internet, no one seems to have gotten the sales part of it right.

Newspapers do have some things going for them. Their names. And add to that the fact that for many people genuinely believe that better value comes if you pay a higher price! Look at fashion, food, technology and the car industry. The name sells it, and the prices make people want to aspire to own it. But in this chosen marketplace the concept of value is completely different.
The internet is an open marketplace, where content can be purchased, and free alternatives are available. Free alternatives from individuals or large companies, which have the potential to deliver content vastly superior to that of the paid for content. And it’s a marketplace where people ilegally distrube copyrighted work on a peer to peer basis. People are happy to search harder and longer as they can do it at home where they aren’t getting soaked in the rain and the coffee is cheaper.

The paradigm of free content over quality is an interesting one, and one which should be tackled head on by all newspapers. Even if it is looked at, newspapers are still trending towards the use of paid for wire services over staffers and freelancers, as it offers better value for money for their stock holders and businessmen. This content (which is seen by many as free as it incurs no additional costs) is even used instead of work by freelancers or staffers even if theirs is beter. To paraphrase a well respected picture editor of a UK national newspaper “even if the freelancers work is 10-15% better than the wire service, we’re still going to use the wire service as it doesn’t effect our budgets. The freelancers work really does have to offer something unique or be of a much better caliber”.

Despite all of this I do think paid for content for newspapers away from the print run could all be possible. And the quality and value aspects of it are integral to the solution.

But if newspapers can’t see it in their budgets to pay for better content, then why should the average reader pay for content that isn’t a million miles better than that of the free alternatives?

There could still be hope for newspapers who wish to keep the existing platform. The study found that the younger generations were more likely to be willing to pay for online news content, so if any newspapers can last with their print models for another 20 years or so, they could start making those big online profits without having to rework what they are producing.

image copyright Chris Jordan

I believe Chris Jordan when he says these scenes of dead Albatross chicks with their bellies full of plastic bottle tops and other such items were photographed faithfully. Nothing added either at the time or manipulated after the fact.

Yet I still find it hard to believe that thousands of miles from anywhere these poor creatures have starved to death, their parents mistaking brightly coloured plastic refuse for food. But here we are provided with the disturbing truth that our throw away society really can impact upon everyone and everything no matter how far away you may be.

Midway – Message from the Gyre by Chris Jordan.

The voice over by U.S Army Staff Sgt Jack Lewis feels like something straight out of Apocalypse Now. It’s a small story of tragedy in Iraq but told in a way so far removed from what we’re used to seeing from that part of the world. If photojournalism has to evolve to survive then this is one direction it should certainly follow.

Watch it on his website here.

Screen capture: content copyright Sheffield Papers

The public perception of the media and “press” in particular has been diminishing or on a low level for some years now, but could this be a new low?

The comments section on my local newspaper’s website (The Sheffield Star) always seem to insight heated discussions (particularly across the more “patriotic” or “political” subject matter) from it’s readers.

A recent story stemming from a surfaced image which depicted a student urinating on a local war memorial, produced some predictable reactions:

“Good God”, “What a disgrace!”, “how disrespectfull can u get??”,  “Kick him out of Uni, he is a disgrace.

But the following struck a cord:

“Whichever low-life took the photograph, kick them out too as no doubt they thought it highly amusing and had a ‘good laugh’ about it, probably ‘goading’ him on.”

woodseats neil

I know that the public find it hard to put their trust into images and reports (thanks to “entertainment” styled news and the like). But to automatically presume that someone who took a photograph was on the side of the wrong doer, or has created some wrong doing themselves, is something I can’t quite fathom.

Of course the possibility existed in my mind that it was a friend of the party who took the picture, but I didn’t rule out the possibility of a bystanders wanting to document the wrong doing…. the citizen journalists of our world.

But this doesn’t seem to be how the minds of the general public view things. So how are news photographers viewed?

You can read the article mentioned and the reader reactions over on the star’s website.

As a result of this, some existing links to our articles may no longer work.

An upcoming gallery exhibition is to feature work by some members of Statement Images.

In October, the itinerant photography show Dr Karanka’s Print Stravaganza will be exhibited in London Photomonth. The Stravaganza started as an open call for photographers who wanted to show in a number of self organized exhibitions in different countries. Hundreds of photographs sent from all over the world, and previously displayed in Italy and France will be shown at The Others from the 9th of October till the 9th of November.

The first exhibition of Dr Karanka’s Print Stravaganza was organized by Joni Karanka at the New Park Liberal Club in Cardiff. After a few weeks of an open call for organizing a local show, more than sixty photographers had submitted their prints to be displayed without expecting any renumeration. After the success of the original show, the photographs started a trip that would take them to XM24 in Bologna (Italy), Arles (France), Gliwice (Poland) and now London. On the way, new photographers have added their work to the show that keeps growing in new and unexpected directions. The variety of the exhibition spaces used and the involvement of local organizers for each show gives Dr Karanka’s Print Stravaganza a unique DIY aspect, bringing photography directly from the artists to the viewers at minimal cost.

The current exhibition at The Others will be the largest Stravaganza to this date and is part of Photomonth: East London Photography festival 2009, and will include not only photographs, but slideshows and music. The Others is located at:

The others
6 and 8 manor rd
Stoke Newington
London
N16 5SA
info@theothers.uk.com

Launch night friday 9th October from 6pm: Exhibition continues until November 1st (not the 9th as advertised)

Tube: Finsbury park then bus 106
Train: Stoke Newington (From Liverpool st)
Buses: 106, 73, 67, 149, 76, 476, 243 (all stop @ Stoke Newington BR)

For More information contact: Sam Bedford mrsltbeford@gmail.com

We are still experiencing these problems but hope to have it resolved as soon as possible.

All should be ok now, but further distruptions are expected in the near future.

Once again sorry.

Russell Bates - Photograph by Mark Lomas

Statement Images photographer – Russell Bates, has recently been interviewed by The Student Guide.

Student Guides: “What attributes make you good at it?”

Russell Bates: “One of the key attributes of this and many other freelance professions are people skills. In this line of work many jobs are found via contacts, friends and other photographers. If you’re personable and easy to get on with you won’t struggle to find work.”

You can read the rest here.

We’re utilizing the existing “News” “Blog” category to distribute this and will use it for website announcements, updates about the photographers and their work, as well as general news which may be of interest to readers of the site.

This content will be completely separated from existing content, and won’t show up in the A-Z and won’t show up in the front page block. However it will show up in the searches and RSS feed.