I’d heard a judging colleague of mine once talk about the images you take home with you. Figuratively speaking, of course. And after judging my first image competition earlier this year, I think I understand what he meant.
I’d been asked to judge for The Professional Photographers of South Carolina and welcomed the February trip to a warmer climate. Ohio was in the middle of Snowmageddon 2014, remember that? Ick.
This was to be my first judging rodeo and I was a little nervous. My fellow judges were all very experienced and I welcomed the opportunity to nestle in among them. No matter what side of the row of chairs you sit on at judging, you still learn. At least when you’re a newbie like me, anyway.
PP of SC was small and intimate. I liked that. There was a unobtrusive team of two or three that ran things and the audience stayed quite silent, as well, so it was easy to forget you weren’t the only one looking at an image.
During the course of the day, we were presented with Permanent Bond. It was a beautiful print of two young men, yin-yanged with a rope/noose of sorts, intertwined. It was captivating, to say the least, and while I was studying it, a storyline began unwinding in my head.
I saw these young men as a couple. Same sex marriages was in the news quite a bit and I have some interest in the topic, so it wasn’t strange that my mind would go in that direction. I saw the rope as symbolic of the public declaration that many same sex couples make – once you make it, you are bound to it, and it very well may be the noose that drags you down.
That was my personal take on it, anyway.
We scored it, and I don’t remember exactly where it landed, but it was challenged. Randy McNeilly was the first to speak for the print, (which means he was the challenger) and he began to speak eloquently for the print and it’s deserving of a higher category score.
The first word of his summary was “Twins.”
THUD. Twins? Oh dear, how did I miss that? Twins? While I was off in never-never land with the storyline, Randy had gotten the intended story of the image as soon as it spun.
Twins. What was I thinking?
I had a series of thought processes going on all at the same time – wondering if I should just quit judging now, very glad that I hadn’t challenged the print and spoken first because I’d be trying to hide under my chair in embarrassment, and listening to Randy’s challenge listing the positive attributes of the image. He was right, and luckily my interpretation of the story of the image had little bearing on my score of the print as it was a superior example of portraiture. In the end, the image scored a 97.
Wow.
Thinking about it now still gives me goosebumps.
Later, we gathered together to eat, and since we were finished with the judging, we could speak freely about the images. I, with some embarrassment, told the other judges my interpretation of the image. And then Randy said something I’ll never forget.
What a fine example of art if two viewers, looking at the same piece of art at the same time can come up with two completely different interpretations.
I’m still thinking about that. I can only hope to some day create the kind of work that moves people emotionally. And not always in the same direction. I’ll probably go though some angst about the directional thing – I probably wouldn’t be near as gracious as the maker of Permanent Bond has been about my rogue interpretation.
I’ll work on that part.
I thought about that image and what Randy said all the way home. And it was a long drive from South Carolina to Ohio. I remembered the judge that said there would be images that didn’t leave your mind, images you’d think about for a long while after the judging was over. Images that would haunt you.
This was one of them.
♦
Permanent Bond was awarded the Sunset Print Award at PP of South Carolina and later went on to win the Sunset Print Grand Award of 2014. To read more about Permanent Bond and maker Tammy Bevins, click HERE.
PS – Tammy Bevins is also a Certified Professional Photographer. Just sayin’.