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Juror's Comments - AlT Photography

When photography came about some 200 years ago, its novelty attracted immediate attention. While the necessary technical aspects of producing a photographic image were lengthy and cumbersome, people reveled in the realness, immediacy, and clarity this new medium captured. Over the years new and alternative processes developed, further expanding the opportunities for the medium. The growth of digital photography over the last decade promises the most profound impact on the future of the medium. In contemplating this impact, a quote of Edward Weston comes to mind, “The camera can only record what is before it, so I must await and be able to grasp the right moment when it is presented on my ground glass.” I like to wonder if Mr. Weston would still stand by this assertion if he had had a digital camera and Adobe Photoshop. These tools would, in essence, allow Weston’s ground glass to record much more than what was before it.

While digital photography is and will continue to be the alternative process in the contemporary spotlight, some artist are returning to processes of yesteryear such as salt and albumen prints, bromoil prints, and rayographs. Many successful artists have made their process synonymous with their work, e.g. John Dugdale’s cyanotypes and Robert Maxwell’s ambrotypes.

Having shared my thoughts on alternative processes, I am compelled to confess that consideration of photographic process played no role in my selection of artists for the exhibition. I did not have to rule on what work was classified as “alternative process” vs. what was not (this was done for me). Neither did I have a mandate to choose works that represented a spectrum of different processes. My role as juror was to consider the entries solely on their artistic value.

My approach to selecting the final works for the exhibition was consistent with how I evaluate work that is regularly submitted to the gallery. I look for work that conveys an authentic voice. I look for work that makes me ask questions. I look for images that will stick in my mind two or three weeks later. But most important, I look for an image that creates some spark of an emotional or spiritual response. I see a lot of work that produces solely an intellectual response, but they are of no interest to me. The intellect is just one of the tools humans have to perceive the world. It is self-limiting. The most successful art transcends the intellect to communicate something that is both universal and unexplainable.

Kevin Miles