Entries in this year’s NIFCA photography competition have dropped by almost half and the challenging economic times are to blame.
But, said the competition’s chief judge, the use of new technology by photographers has pushed the standard of NIFCA “over and beyond”.
This was the revelation from Stephen R. Smith, who said less than 200 entries were submitted by photographers this year.
He was reviewing the competition last Sunday evening as the National Cultural Foundation opened its First Citizens NIFCA Visual Arts And Photography Exhibition at the Spirit Bond Mall.
Calling it a “dramatic drop”, Smith told WEEKEND BUZZ entries for judging plummeted from “the high 300s of last year” to 184 this year.
“A lot of the participants said it was an economic decision in terms of the number of pieces they could enter,” he explained, adding that this year’s entries were “a mixed bag”.
“There were some excellent pieces, some very good pieces and some not so very good pieces but it all bears out in the mix in terms of the scores and the awards we’ve awarded to the pieces,” he said, adding there were some which “started as being good pieces, very good ideas but sometime in the execution the idea got lost”.
This year, there were no film entries and Smith put this down to the creativity offered by digital photography.
“What I am pleased to see this year was more high dynamic range (HDR) photography which is significantly impacting on the quality of photographs in NIFCA,” Smith said.
“The technology is coming to NIFCA and the photographers are enjoying the availability of these new techniques, and high dynamic range is one that I want to highlight as one of the techniques that are definitely pushing the standard of the NIFCA over and beyond.”
Smith, however, cautioned photographers about the overuse of Photoshop, saying there were times when it was “way overdone”.
“This is one of the problems we are seeing in NIFCA where it starts off with poor photography, which is then over-manipulated to try to make it into something that it really did not start as, and it loses a lot of points for that because it is a photography competition and not a graphic art competition,” Smith stressed, advising photographers to work towards quality.
Overall, 66 medals were awarded this year – ten bronze in the junior category and 37 in the adult; two silver in the junior category, 15 in the adult, no gold in the junior category and two in the adult.
