World Press

I forgot to mention in my previous post to mention that I also checked out the World Press Photo exhibition on sat. Though, it's probably better that I write a "review" of it in a separate post. :P

So yeah, here's my review...

First impressions? to be honest i was a bit "meh" about it at first. But that's probably because the displays in the first room that you see first were the sports photos. I mean there were some really really cool shots there. But the first ones I saw were the ones of the swimmers. There were some amazing compositions in this lot, but I know that for many (in fact most) of these shots, the cameras have been set up prior to the event under the water, with the exposures all preset, and all the photographer does is fire a remote shutter when the swimmers dive off the blocks or as they go past. Plus shooting digital, they probably capture hundreds of frames in the one event, and really by pure luck and may get an "award winning" photo. Plus I'm sure that their compositions were not that tight, but rather that they would've shot loosely and cropped in post-production to give the final result. So to me those shots were more "luck" than skill... Call me a cynic :P

With regard to the other sports photos, I didn't really like the shots taken by David Burnett. there were some nice compositions, but I just felt like the "gaussian blur" was a bit over the top and too obvious for me, and also uneven in places. Also for a lot of the shots, I couldn't tell what the point of focus was. Very often the main subject of the shot was not in focus, and though my eye was to focus and pay attention to it, I kept finding my eye being drawn to other less important parts of the photo. However, I did find his shot of the hockey field quite intriguing. I felt like i was viewing a toy model. The players just had that really strange toy-like feel to them! But again in this shot, I couldn't tell what or who was the focal point of the photo.

Moving on to the other photographic categories, I found many of the shots to be nothing really special at first glance. However, in series with the other shots of the same theme or subject, there was "strength in numbers", and together they told a story. However, what I found most moving and powerful, was reading the stories and background of the shots. This brought the photos to life, giving them meaning and purpose, making me relate to the subject/s. Without the background info, I found many photos to be quite pointless, and purposeless. There was no great photographic technique to marvel at, but with the story, I really felt the photos come to life.

I think, that on the whole I'm not a big fan of the reportage medium of photography. It has it's place, and certainly plays an important role in documenting important events. But from a photographic purists point of view, to me (possibly naivety) it just seems a lot like shooting hundreds of pics in the hope that by chance u get a good/great shot. Things happen so quickly that u don't really have time to compose a shot, it's just hit and miss. But then again, like I said, I'm probably speaking out of naivety, and I'm happy to be proved and shown to be wrong.

Having said that though, there were some truely amazing pics. One of my favourites was the shot of the fire in Brazil with the girl standing on the right. The colors were sooo vivid, and the composition spot on!! Another one was African orphan standing in the field. Again, the colours in this shot were amazingly saturated!! And the series of the Nightwatchmen in Burkina to me was really amazing.

I could keep going and going. I haven't even mentioned the nature shots like the animals feet and storm chasers.

I guess on the whole I did enjoy the exhibition. Seeing the photographic documentation of such tragic events like the tsunami really hit home to me how good we have it here in Sydney. But at the same time, it made me realise that I don't think I could ever pursue a career as a photojournalist, at least not in those environments. I would be too overwhelmed by the circumstances to worry about taking photos! Like that shot of the african immigrants in the water. If I were the photographer, I'd be more worried about helping them get in the boat than taking photos!!!!

I think i'll stick to landscapes and weddings. Much less stressful in comparison!!