REMINDER: PBase Magazine Photo Challenge

[magazine]

Hey PBasers !
Just wanted to remind you of the PBase Magazine photo challenge
that we launched in Issue #2

Download Issue #2 from http://www.pbase.com/magazine and turn to page 15

The contest ends on Sep 11, 2005. The winner will get his/her spot in the next issue (thats over 40,000 readers looking at you and your work).

Interestingly, we have received most of our entries from non PBase subscribers - come on ! Are the PBasers sleepin' ?

Cheers
PBase Mag. Team

[johnwaine]

I think that the brief of 'abstraction, incongruity and human values' may have been a bit 'arty' for some pBasers.

I'm not being critical -far from it, the magazine is excellent, and thanks must go to those who have put in the hard work to produce it.

[arjunrc]

Hi John,
I see what you mean - that is valid comment - it does sound rather complex. We will make sure we simplify the text for the next challenge - the idea is pretty simple but the language is a little flowery.

regds
arjun

I think that the brief of 'abstraction, incongruity and human values' may have been a bit 'arty' for some pBasers.

I'm not being critical -far from it, the magazine is excellent, and thanks must go to those who have put in the hard work to produce it.

[robertwhite]

Just one thing the word Incongruity I am unable to find in The Collins English Dictionary
Bob

[arjunrc]

Hi Bob - the adjective form may help - incongruous

http://m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book= ... ncongruous

lacking congruity: as a : not harmonious
b : not conforming
c : inconsistent within itself <an incongruous story>

regds
arjun

Just one thing the word Incongruity I am unable to find in The Collins English Dictionary
Bob

[robertwhite]

Thank you Ajun, I am now a little wiser
Regards Bob

[annayu]

Well I sent in my shot at it today. Dunno what incongruous means exactly (yeah I read the post above) so I interpreted it in my own way.

[annayu]

whoops

[jypsee]

.... 'abstraction, incongruity and human values' .... that Mr. Douglis believes are something-or-other are just RHETORIC. And, as an academic who writes that stuff all the time, it's not designed to clarify or represent much beyond the idea that spewing difficult and lofty sounding stuff somehow makes the writer/speaker seem like they know something.... and, especially, they know something worthwhile and if we would just figure it out we'd be just like them. Phil Douglis has bamboozled people here on pbase with his opaque verbiage and the magazine fell for it.
A better photographic essay was the article about Bryan Peterson who says he tries to illustrate a "problem" in a way that the student will grasp. Further, Peterson says that a way to learn is to look at the work of photographers that we like and try to do what that photographer did. In other words, adopt a "normalizing interpretation," which is the antithesis of what Douglis tells us. Douglis says that his intention in making a photograph is what he is trying to express and if someone else has a different interpretation, well.... that's OK. However, with no normalizing interpretive language, students are left to wonder what all that rhetoric actually means....

We'd be better off to look at Douglis' photos and just try to do the same thing he's doing without reading the mystical mumbo jumbo.

Here's my take on "abstraction, incongruity, and human values"

get it???

[robertwhite]

Iypsee I think your on a winner
Bob

[magazine]

I'd like to respond to this, first, as an individual photo-enthusiast and not as one of the editors of the PBase Magazine:

I personally agree that the wording seems to be more abstract than I'd like. If I just looked at the para of the competition, it would be hard for me to figure out what exactly it means without consulting a dictionary. To that extent, I believe that the wording could be simplified.

However, once I checked up the meaning and viewed Phil's galleries, I found it nothing less than inspiring. When I viewed the images without a commentary, I just did not get it. When I viewed it along with commentary, I was very inspired. I admired his perspective.

Now putting on the magazine editor hat:

I think we could have done a better job explaning that 'incongruity' has been explained in detail in the article before the challenge and that readers should first read the article on expressive photography before jumping straight into the competition.

We live and learn, I guess

I think this is a great discussion - it gives us tips on how to move forward with this section. Thanks for bringing this up.



regds
arjun

[robertwhite]

Firstly I would like to add that I think Phill's work is very good and inspiring and I have made several comments on his work, but alas I find his lanquage a little to flowery and feel it confuses a lot of people I for one have not got an education in flowery English (more like gutter English) which I also think he has just bamboozled and confused everyone
Perhaps in the furure we could simplyfly things a little in a way that we all understand
Regards Bob