evidently i just have bad taste *BEWARE: i'm venting here*

[carlita]

okay so i don't actually believe that, but i know my taste doesn't seem to jive AT ALL with that of the rest of the people in my exhibition photo class.

here's how it works... every other week there's a group of about 5 people who give the rest of the class a call for entries for whatever subject they've decided to do an exhibition on. they tell us how many prints we can submit, how they should be presented, what size and format they have to be, blah blah blah blah blah.

we have two weeks to work on each subject and at the end of that two weeks we turn in what we've come up with with our number on the back (in lieu of our name so that there's at least some degree of anonimity) and the group goes through them, picks the ones they like the best and they go up on the wall in one of the hallways on the photography department's floor of the communications building here at the university. your grade is ultimately based on how many exhibitions you manage to get work into.

we've had four exhibitions so far. i've submitted work to all of them. for the first three, i worked really hard on them, spent a lot of time trying to make my entries as perfect as i'm capable of making them, and basically just busted my ass working on them. didn't get into the first three. now, some of the people whose work got in definitely deserved it. their work was exceptional and i would have picked them myself had i been the curator. however, there always seem to be at least another half that make it in that i can't, for the life of me, figure out. they're either bad ideas that happened to be printed well, or good ideas and bad prints.

so for this last exhibition i decided i wasn't going to put much thought at all into my work. nor was i going to bother putting much effort into it. i thought up an idea that i figured would suffice, but wasn't anything fancy and i MAYBE spent about 20 minutes making the print i turned in. didn't bother making any test prints. didn't even make more than one copy of it. and in my opinion, it was not a good print. it was alright i suppose, but it definitely wasn't what i'd call good work.

on my way to the darkroom earlier today i notice my work this time around is on the wall.

that's just sad. :no smile: :roll:

 

[terri]

Poor little girl.... :hug: There's a lot going on here, you know. It could be you're too hard on yourself, and the piece that made it on the wall is actually a fine piece; just nothing YOU particularly feel that proud of. But that doesn't mean it's ****.

That said....I know exactly what you mean. It's painful, and will always be painful (and annoying) to see what you consider lesser pieces getting attention when you know you've worked your butt off on something that is damn worthy of some respect. .....ah, if the world could only agree with our own views....then we'd all be Ansel Adams. Or somebody.

Get used to that part of it, and develop a thick hide.... you only have to please yourself in the long run. Please yourself, and try not to be overly critical.

Nirvana is when you know you worked your butt off, and you are smitten with your own work, and you see others agreeing with you that what you've done IS good...that kind of validation is what keeps us going on.

Work for those moments! And work for yourself.

 

[mrsid99]

Hi Carlita!
This sounds like a perfect opportunity for me to join in on your vent but first the disclaimer: "I'm an Engineer (a very old one at that!) and as we all know Engineers and Artists mix about as well as oil and water".
Now I'm betting that the "groups" that do the judging are mostly "Artistic" types and my observations indicate that artists tend to be lazy and like to be "different" to prove that they're artists and as such prefer schlock!
With a subject like photography it's bound to attract a high percentage of that type.
It sounds to me that Carlita has not only artistic ability but also strives for technical excellence, the result is what she describes.
Since her grades depend on pandering to the lowest common denominator I suggest she repeats her succesful schlock work just for the "exhibitions" and look on it as a learning experience, think of it as tailoring your work to the customer.

 

[carlita]

Since her grades depend on pandering to the lowest common denominator I suggest she repeats her succesful schlock work just for the "exhibitions" and look on it as a learning experience, think of it as tailoring your work to the customer.

yes, yes, yes! precisely what i plan to do.

and the thing is, i don't so much have an issue with the fact that people don't always like my stuff. i like my stuff, so they can bite me for all i care. the thing that irks me is the way this class works. the fact that you can put tons and tons of effort into the class, and make perfectly accetable work, and get ZERO credit for it, ultimately leaving you with a failing grade simply because your submission(s) didn't particularly appeal to the personal tastes of the people who happened to be curators that week. not being chosen doesn't hurt my feelings... it hurts my GPA.

it also doesn't help that i know people are letting their friends slide in when their work doesn't deserve to be displayed. the whole number system instead of names thing is supposed to guard against that to some extent, but we all work in the same darkroom. we see people printing their stuff all the time so it's easy to figure out whose work is whose a lot of the time. plus, when you have a friend on the committee, chances are they've seen the work before you turned it in. it's just the nature of things.

all i know is, when it's my turn to be on the committee for one of these things, i'll be damned if i'm gonna let crap work go up on the wall and have my name tacked onto the exhibition as one of the curators. not a chance.

 

[captain-spanky]

aaaaaaaaaaa flashback to school... do they all give you a bruised/dead arm at the start of class too?

 

[havoc]

Oh poor Carli, the brain of an engineer, and the eye of an artist.

I would love to see what you submitted that was exceptional to you, and what got on the wall, I am sure we would all agree that yours deserved to be there, most of us have seen your work, and it is exceptional! Any class that has students determining other students grades is inherantly flawed, I have a problem with most professors critiques, not just on my own work but on others as well. Usually there is no way to determine, time and effort (which should be critical to any graded assignment) there is only what is visually pleasing to the professor. Sometimes this bothers us and limits our potential, but at least we can try and tailor our work to his/her tastes. When students are grading, all there can be is a popularity contest. Maybe a truely exceptional piece can win over the students, but most will not.
At least by limiting your factors you can tailor your work to be successful in class.
Sorry now i am ranting LOL, i found out today that a drawing i did in a basic design class got an "F" from the professor. F**K that whiny hi pitched talking A**hole. I have taken enough art courses to understand what is at least passible and what isn't.
Now my piece was not my best, probably was my worst ever, but it was 7 hrs that i dedicated to an assignment when others spent 2 hrs on it. (the assignment was on perspective) Easy stuff, he said i made it too complicated thereby giving me the "F".
While the other students wasted 2 hrs of their life on 1 point perspective, i jumped into a 3 point perspective drawing that took up 7 hr's.
See now it sounds like i am whining LOL. Anyways, i guess i will redo it and simplify it so he is happy, (at the expense of 10% final grade because its now late) I am just waiting until i can stomach drawing garbage for him.

I am serious though Carli, if you have time we would love to see what you did that was good enough, and what "wasn't" good enough.

 

[carlita]

i would havoc, but we don't get our work back. :?

 

[ksmattfish]

There's stuff you do for yourself, and stuff you do for money. Unless they are handing out cash prizes, I say you do your own thing and f_ck 'em if they don't recognize genius. Don't doubt your self. If you want to exhibit your photos just look around, lot's of places will put up people's work: bookstores, coffee shops, restaurants, just keep an eye out for blank walls.

Check out this guy's story. Go to
http://www.mcitret.com/
click on "Reviews and Articles", then click on "View Camera profile".

 

[carlita]

Check out this guy's story. Go to
http://www.mcitret.com/
click on "Reviews and Articles", then click on "View Camera profile".

i was reading that and stopped to check the site again (it hurts my eyes to read text on the comp with a white background for too long ) and i saw that you'd posted it here as well as on IRC before you left.


"'Mark, you are a wonderful photographer and there is nothing you can do about it.'"

that's the exact same sort of thing my art teacher told me about me being a designer at heart. strange.

 

[photong]

Umm..eah. I had the same problem when it came to my college assignments. Anything I said "screw that" to went well..and anything I spent a lot of time on either recieved an average grade or a failing grade.

*le sigh*

It's a bit suspisious though. Is it you who has bad taste..or the judging group?

OR...is there some sort of conspiracy? lol