There are, of course, many reasons why we don’t get selected by the juries of arts festivals. Many of these are subjective (not what the jury was looking for, it was before lunch and they were hungry, it was after lunch and they were sleepy, yours was the last images to be judged, etc, etc.). These reasons are not ones that you can have a lot of control over and are at the mercy of ‘luck of the draw’. But, there are two areas that I noticed last year that caused otherwise good artists to be rejected. The first is the booth slide (or image, in this digital age). Many artists will hire a professional photographer to shoot their work (because they are not very talented with a camera themselves) and then they will take that lack of talent with the camera and photograph their booth! So the jury sees these wonderful images of the work and then are dismayed when they get to the booth. In major shows your booth can account for 30% of your score (even though it is only 20% of your images). Shows that have a reputation for the fine arts and fine crafts also want to see fine booths. When you are displaying your work with other artists, the public sees the show as a single experience and if there are booths that look amateurish then the whole show begins to look that way to the spectators. This is why the jurors will put such a high value on how you are presenting your work because it will reflect strongly on the show as a whole.
The second, and more subtle, thing that I saw was the sharpness of the digital images. I’m not sure the jurors were consciously aware of the way that some images were ’soft’ to the focus but as a photographer I did see it. It may seem minor but when your score hangs in the balance, every edge you have may help. I am not going into a long dissertation on how to sharpen digital images but will merely say that ALL digital images need a little sharpening (maybe a little more than a little). Do some research on the image software that you are using and learn a bit about sharpening or find a 13 year old computer whiz and have them do it!
I hope this info is useful but remember that the sharpest images, with the best booth shot that is of art that the jury is not looking for, still won’t get in. (No one said life is fair…..)
Jim,
As you know from many years of getting – or not getting – into art shows, one of the frustrating things about the jurying is that we as artists don’t know how much importance is placed on a jury slide for each of the individual shows. Also, does a jury want a booth image as seen at an art show? Or would they prefer a booth image that has been set up to best display the work without the distraction of a shady location mixed with bright sun, trees, grass, etc., that often shows up in a booth image shot on location?
I have been rejected with a booth image that has been shot in a studio setting, because a show wanted to see the work in a show site setting. But I didn’t know this (and I do have booth images shot at shows), because this requirement wasn’t included in the jury standards. How can we get shows to state their requirement for a booth image?
Comment by michael stipek — December 5, 2007 @ 10:21 am
Michael,
I agree that this issue is frustrating. Perhaps NAIA would be the place to get something done to make shows state clearly what the booth should look like. Personally, I am fine with the booth shot being done in studio or the back yard as long as it closely resembles what the booth will look like at the event. I’m not sure that my jury needs to see curbs, street signs or other distractions to judge what kind of booth you can put together.
Comment by Jim DeLutes — December 5, 2007 @ 10:43 am