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Philadelphia Museum of Art Photography Portfolio Competition
| The Women's Committee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art has launched an exciting and unique Photography Portfolio Competition. Three prominent jurors will select six photographs to create a limited-edition portfolio that will be sold to benefit the Museum. One copy of the portfolio will also enter the Museum's collection. The competition jurors are Tina Barney, the noted photographer; Melissa Harris, editor-in-chief of Aperture Magazine, and Peter Barberie, the Brodsky Curator of Photographs at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The competition is open to anyone 18 or older, and it promises to draw artists as diverse as the museum's collection, which comprises great artworks made all around the world. It is designed to draw attention to photography's significance as a contemporary art form, and it is also part of a strategy to broaden and build the collection. Organizers hope to discover new talent. "We want to collect contemporary photography very ambitiously and internationally," said Peter Barberie, Curator of Photographs for the museum's Alfred Stieglitz Center. "We must look broadly for new work, and this competition will hopefully bring many talented photographers to our attention." In looking for compelling new photography, Barberie knows he has to keep an open mind and let the photographer speak to him through the photograph. "To recognize strong work, you have to be willing to have your mind changed," he said. "It's not up to critics and curators to decree what makes a great photograph. It's up to an artist to use the camera in a way that makes us return to the picture again and again." Vision For The Collection As part of his vision to build the museum's photography collection, Barberie also is looking to selectively add significant historical photographs - some from the early days of the craft and others from the early- to mid-1900s. "I'd love to get a great 19th Century landscape of the western United States," he said, mentioning artists such as Carleton Watkins and Timothy O'Sullivan. "They're very powerful and complex pictures of the American landscape that helped shape our understanding of what it means to be American." Other images on his wish list include a Florence Henri photograph, a photo collage from the 1910s or '20s, and more works made by photographers including Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans for the Farm Service Administration in the 1930s and 1940s. "Most of us have experienced the depression through those photographs," he said of the FSA images. Aside from the historical photos, Barberie's vision for building the museum's collection centers on contemporary work, which is much more of a gamble. "There's no agreed-upon set of criteria for what makes great contemporary art," he said. "The current art scene is something of a free-for-all. Every good curator has to take chances on which artists will end up being significant." Trends In Photography Advances in digital technology are driving change in the world of photography, both in the ways photos are produced and the opening of new global markets. Digital photographs are made in an entirely different way than film-based works (now often called analog photographs), in which there was always a direct, physical link between the light that shone through the camera lens and the final paper print. Both analog and digital photographs can be manipulated, but differently. "We're in a period of transition, which is actually typical for photography," Barberie said. "In large part the history of the medium has been driven by technology. As different technologies become prevalent, they become dominant." "It's clear now that digital modes are going to largely--if not entirely--supplant film-based photography." One trend Barberie noted is the large turn toward what he calls "artificial photos," for which artists create their subjects, then photograph them. Another is the documentation of the photographer's personal milieu, including family and friends. Both modes preceded digital photography, but they have gained traction with the new technology. With the advances in digital technology and the ease of sharing work on the Internet, new photographers are being discovered. "One development that we must come to terms with in the advance of digital photography is that the medium has become ever so much more global," he said. "It's challenging. There's so much more material to see and more artists to know about. And it is tremendously exciting." Barberie knows he's living in changing times in photography, and sometimes it might be harder to tell what's good. "I want to know what's going on out there," he said. "There's more great work around the world and it's easier to see because of the Internet. There's a lot more to absorb. It's the world we live in today." Hopes For The Contest The contest, which was conceived, funded and is administered by the Women's Committee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, takes a different approach from what the museum has done before. The Women's Committee was looking for a way to raise the profile of photography in the larger community as well as benefit the museum's fine collection. The biggest fund-raiser the Women's Committee organizes on an annual basis is the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show, which debuted in 1976. The show routinely raises more than $400,000 every year. An additional annual fund-raising event was added in 1999: Small Indulgences, a trunk show held in the spring. The group funds and/or administers many other museum projects such as Opening Galas and Form in Art, a program for visually impaired adults that combines art history classes with studio instruction, the oldest program of its kind in the country. "The Photography Competition is a new type of project for us," said Cynthia Holstad, President of the Committee. Museums often ask established, noted photographers to donate works for a fund-raising portfolio. Because of the artists' reputations, such portfolios can sell for large sums. On the other hand, smaller non-profit photography centers and galleries often hold competitions where just about anybody can submit work, usually for inclusion in an exhibition rather than a portfolio. "Open competitions are a great way for curators to learn what's out there in the broader world," Barberie said. This contest will include aspects of both approaches in the hope of discovering new talent. "What I'm hoping will happen is that we find terrific work by six artists who aren't very well known, and they'll gain a foothold, or at least a toehold, through their inclusion in the portfolio," he said. The contest has no categories. Barberie and fellow judges Melissa Harris and Tina Barney, will simply choose the best photographs. "Really, the jurors will just want to select the most compelling pictures," he said, "whatever the content." Does that mean each judge might have a favorite? Yes. And the discussions about the work and what makes it great will add to the weight of the outcome. "Artists really have to point the way about what is significant content in a work of art, and what is significant form," he said. So what does a winner look like? "I don't' know," he said. "The winners are going to have to show me!" |
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Philadelphia Museum of Art Photography Competition - A jury of nationally recognized photography experts will select six entries for inclusion in a 16" x 20" portfolio to be published and exhibited at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in an edition of 25 in fall 2010.
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