How we spent this Sunday.
Hold on a second. Before you go any further, press play right here:
Photolucida is proud to announce the Top 50 photographers from Critical Mass 2008! These 50 Photographers are hereby recognized for their exceptionally handsome and thought-provoking work (psst... these aren't linked, but the list over on the left is):
Jeffrey Aaronson
Angela Bacon-Kidwell
Cara Barer
David Paul Bayles
Damion Berger
Rita Bernstein
Pelle Cass
Tom Chambers
Alejandro Chaskielberg
Céline Clanet
Ian van Coller
Livia Corona
Katrina d'Autremont
Matt Eich
Jeffris Elliott
Andy Freeberg
Amanda Friedman
Joy Goldkind
Cig Harvey
Jessica Hines
Thomas Holton
Dave Jordano
Priya Kambli
Jim Kazanjian
Jaime Kowal
Ferit Kuyas
Pablo Lopez Luz
David Leventi
Alison Malone
Rania Matar
Graham Miller
Lucas Oleniuk
Louie Palu
Eric Percher
Cara Phillips
Reiner Riedler
Christina Seely
Brian Shumway
Sarah Small
Tema Stauffer
Will Steacy
Marcela Taboada
Daniel Traub
Antonio Turok
Carlo Van de Roer
Manuel Vazquez
Lori Waselchuk
Lisa Wiltse
Natalie Young
Mi Zhou
Angela Bacon-Kidwell
Cara Barer
David Paul Bayles
Damion Berger
Rita Bernstein
Pelle Cass
Tom Chambers
Alejandro Chaskielberg
Céline Clanet
Ian van Coller
Livia Corona
Katrina d'Autremont
Matt Eich
Jeffris Elliott
Andy Freeberg
Amanda Friedman
Joy Goldkind
Cig Harvey
Jessica Hines
Thomas Holton
Dave Jordano
Priya Kambli
Jim Kazanjian
Jaime Kowal
Ferit Kuyas
Pablo Lopez Luz
David Leventi
Alison Malone
Rania Matar
Graham Miller
Lucas Oleniuk
Louie Palu
Eric Percher
Cara Phillips
Reiner Riedler
Christina Seely
Brian Shumway
Sarah Small
Tema Stauffer
Will Steacy
Marcela Taboada
Daniel Traub
Antonio Turok
Carlo Van de Roer
Manuel Vazquez
Lori Waselchuk
Lisa Wiltse
Natalie Young
Mi Zhou
We're also proud to announce our 2008 Book Award Finalists! These six photographers are hereby further recognized for their super-exceptionally handsome and thought-provoking work:
Céline Clanet
Jeffris Elliott
Andy Freeberg
Priya Kambli
Pablo Lopez Luz
Graham MillerCongratulations to each and every participant, Reviewer, and anyone else who's been lucky enough to view this great work!
Critical Mass Q & A:
Remind me again, what's this all about? What is Critical Mass?
To recap, Critical Mass is a celebration of contemporary photography; a program designed to connect photographers who make good work with professionals (curators, editors, etc.) who care about it. A longer, more thorough explanation can be found here on our website.
How does it work?
This year we received over 600 initial entrants (10 images each) and our team of about 20-some Much-Beloved and Esteemed Pre-Screeners winnowed that group down to 180 plus our 5 International Award Recipients from Mexico. These 185 photographers, our Finalists, were then viewed and voted on by over 200 Much-Beloved and Esteemed Reviewers. So, all in all, there have been around 6000 images, 1600 eyeballs, and much be-loving and esteeming.
Hey, I was among the Finalists, but my name's not on this list, what's up with that? My work's really good, what's your problem?
That's no problem, that's democracy. When the voting was all tallied up at the end, this is how the numbers fell. Here's the really interesting thing about having so many great reviewers: they don't actually agree on what good work is. It's just opinions and math, my friend, opinions and math. Here's the deal- when you have this many people viewing & voting, every single vote does matter, yet the actual numeric significance of every single vote is quite small with so many people in the fray. For example, the numeric difference between #50 and #51 is only .0053473.
If it's that close, why not just have a Top 51?
Because the difference between #51 and #52 is tiny too. And then there'd be #52 to #53, #53 to #54, etc.
So, I was a Finalist, what do I win? Do you have some sort of Critical Mass Trophy or "Critical Masskicker!" baseball cap or something?
Nope, no baseball cap, but you've already won. Your work has just been seen by over 200 photography professionals and those who liked it are considering it for their own needs, sometimes in the short term, sometimes in the long. Just in the past couple weeks we've already begun hearing reports of photographers finding gallery representation, print sales being made, editorial assignments being given, shows being offered, lots of blog shouts, etc. If such an opportunity finds its way to you, please keep us in the loop.
Oh, also, many participants have had comments left for them by Reviewers. We'll be getting those to you over the next few weeks. It's not exactly a novelty baseball cap or a trophy, but in a sense, they're still something you can wear and/or cling to.
What do you mean that these 6 above are your Book Award Finalists? Does that mean that you're putting out 6 books?
No. Our Book Award Finalists are selected by the Photolucida Board after much careful thought and deliberation, with the scoring and recommendations from our Reviewers being taken into serious consideration. We then solicit proposals from these Finalists and from these, we'll choose which two, or maybe three monographs to publish. Eventually, these books will be sent out to each and every participating photographer and Reviewer from Critical Mass 2008. It does take quite a while, but the product's worth the wait.
Critical Mass sounds swell. When's the next one? When can I sign up?
Get on our mailing list, right here (down at the bottom).
I remember you mentioned something before about a "Reviewer's Scrapbook." What's up with that? When's that going to happen?
I'm not sure when it'll happen, but it'll happen. We're still in the midst of collecting from some Reviewers who've been kind enough to share the images that really grabbed them. But to start us out, Andy Adams from Flak Photo is going to host his own Reviewer's Scrapbook through a daily feature on the Flak site. Each day through the end of January, Andy will feature a different image he came across through Critical Mass. In fact, look, it's premiering today.
THANKS TO ALL FOR MAKING CRITICAL MASS 2008 A HUGE SUCCESS!
7 comments:
So far nobody's contacted me about just exactly how fabulous I am (with offers of assignments, gallery repping, etc.). Do you have any recommendations? I'm wondering if some photographers try to contact the reviewers? But we don't know who likes our work! Or do we just wait for the big tub of kudos to arrive?
Hi Anonymous,
I'm wary of posting/responding to anonymous comments because once it starts, I worry that the sour grapes will flow and it will never end. However, I'm going to respond to yours because I do understand how you feel. For most, that question of what you get out of Critical Mass is a big unknown and when your name's not on that final list, you can't help but let the existential doubts drag you down. I've been there.
All I can say is that you're not alone and things take time. You never know, that big tub o' kudos (if you don't trademark that phrase, I will) might actually be on its way. Or, its also possible that you'll receive absolutely no direct word/feedback/opportunities etc. There's no way that we can say and we're honest about that up-front. I do think though, that a lot of people pay attention to Critical Mass and you might be surprised when you show that work to someone in the future and they remember seeing it in Critical Mass.
But what I can tell you is that if you're on that Finalist cd, people have looked and will continue to look at your work. And really, quite a few Reviewers dug in at the last minute so for some, they've just looked at the work about a week ago. Things take time.
I'll add to this conversation.
What's the lag time between finding work that I love and giving that person an assignment? I'd say 6 months to 5 years. It's rare and now I'm sure rarer that one single event will make you want to hand someone thousands of dollars to go make pictures. It's usually several sightings, looking at the portfolio, an in-person meeting, a comment from someone you trust... it goes on and on and the exact combination is a mystery.
The only thing to keep in mind is that if you don't start somewhere it will never happen.
Hello,
As a gallery owner I'd like to reinforce Shawn's comment about jurors remembering your work in the future - even if they don't contact you immediately.
It is a very old maxim of general marketing principles that you have to have a certain number of "exposures" to a potential customer before they actually make a purchase. This is a very important concept when marketing your work as a photographer as well.
Curators, gallery owners and all of your other potential customers often need to see your work multiple times as you build name recognition. Critical Mass, portfolio review sessions, magazine profiles, blog entries, and the myriad other options to get your work out there all very important as strategies in your overall marketing plan.
In selecting artists to show in my gallery I rarely sign an artist after just one contact. But, there are instant success stories. I quickly signed and exhibited a Critical Mass participant from 2007 and have been thrilled to watch that artist go on to bigger things since then. I also signed on portfolio review participant on the spot.
These happy events are rare, though. Out of the 150 portfolios I may see in Critical Mass I might only have room to show one. It is a very tough choice and I really prefer to ponder artist selections over a long time period.
So, now that your work has been seen in Critical Mass take some time to make a plan to capitalize on that exposure. You have all created some wonderful bodies of work. Now it’s time to think about how to move ahead and build on your momentum.
Good luck!
Laura Russell
Owner of 23 Sandy Gallery and in the interest of full disclosure also a Photoludica board member.
Hey, thanks for the encouragement! I'm actually doing pretty well, but I think my comment sounded pretty whiny!
Mr. First Anonymous
And, Mr. First Anonymous, onlookers like me can't find your work because you are...anonymous.
I run a gallery, too. And I also look at a lot of work and chose very little. But you never know.
When I first opened my gallery I did a lot of research online to find artists. One place I looked was PhotoEye online gallery because I had been to their gallery in Santa Fe and liked and trusted their eye.
On their website I found and fell in love with an artist's work and contacted her immediately and asked her if she'd like to take a chance with her photographs in my new gallery. She said "yes" and I've been showing and selling her pictures for three years.
The artist is Cara Barer, and now she has just been named one of the Critical Mass Top 50. And one of her photos is on the cover of this month's Domus magazine. Wow! How cool is that ??!!
Mazel Tov to all the winners, and to all who entered. Being a photographer is a hard, hard job, but someone's got to do it, and I admire you all.
wow I looked through all of the submissions on the CD and none of my favourites - none - made it to the final selection. The finalists are good but I am shocked that some very good work and some outstanding creative work has again been overlooked (like it is unfortunatley often the case in jury-based selections as I have wirnessed when I was myself on them)
Too bad but congratulations to the winners!
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