In my general thoughts I knew there is something wrong somewhere. And I’m referring to the photography competition sector in Sri Lanka. I'm not a pro but I think there is something critical which need to be changed when it comes to exhibiting and submitting of shots.
I have not being here for decades but I have seeing something’s happen. I have seeing some important things change and evolve. Exhibited art categories are one of those. Especially when we have moved from all manual film age to the comprehensive digital era.
I do not mean any disrespect to any one by writing this. But I see little purpose in categorizing photographs as Black & White and Color for competitions any more. When the film was exposed yes black & white and color had significant differences in handling and developing them afterward. But now you just click a button and make the color change. It’s just the skill of post process what matters.
But now there are other important ways to look at the art. Categorizing them by looking at what actually show in the photo. Basic categorizations like portrait , street, landscape and nature, wild life , architecture &interior, sports & action or photojournalism are some. The art is rapidly changing and so do the photographer who choose a path for themselves. Nowadays there are hardly a photographer who chooses to work completely black & white. Instead of that they choose to work in a category like portrait work or nature photography. The judging and categorizing should change according to that I believe.
True there is an artistic aspect to Black& white and Color. Yet this thought bugs me. Open for comments if any
Adios!
