Hardly Inspiring

It's very difficult to judge the quality of Jordi's complete work without an oversight of the whole project, but viewing this photograph I would say that it's hardly inspiring or ground breaking work.
I'm very surprised that it won.
I've seen better, and more technically proficient portraits displayed at my local camera club.
What were the judges thinking?

SWAG

Uh Randall you're just h8in you wish you had 12G's!!!!! Jordi went down the pub with 12G's and you aint got sheeeeeiiiiiitttttttt hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah

randell

a local camera club ha ha ha that about says it all , about as relevant to photography as Rolf harris is to paintingDH

Jordi went down the pub

Dear Mr Randell John, don't be jealous now. It's very unbecoming.

http://bit.ly/TumWTi

Year Zero

You will all have to forgive me for sounding a bit despondent, but I am absolutely dumbfounded and cannot understand for the life of me how a portrait such as this can win a major international portrait competition. It looks like something a completely untrained novice could do without having any knowledge or understanding of photography.

It makes me feel like my years of training, study and effort have all been for nothing and makes my passion for the art and craft, along with a striving for excellence totally pointless.

'Photography' is dying, the age of point and press snaps is here. This is not the only competition that is leaning toward this level, other are too....shame.

Jordi Ruiz Cirera wins!

Well of course he shouldn't have won! Apparently they didn't take into account the price of the camera and no credit for the number of lights he used. And point and shoot, why not? If they're only going to judge on composition, timing, pose, subject(s), etc. Why not just go ahead and give out the prize just because it's a perfect portrait? Which it is.

To the camera clubs

You people really get to me, everytime there's an award given out you all start whinging about how the photos awful and my picture of my daughter smiling next to her birthday cake is so much better and 'technically proficient' because you managed to get your Canon speed light to light her up.

Why don't you people just accept that none of you understand good photography?

Like Jordi I sacrifice a lot for photography, I choose to work longer hours and for a lot less money then most careers because in the long run I would like to make a decent living from it when I'm older. People like Jordi put a lot of hard work and passion into this and all you camera club members who for most of you it's just a hobby come on the forums with your uninformed opinions and just agitate everyone that understands the medium.

I'll tell you what why don't you post a link to YOUR work anytime you all decide to share your opinions about the work and then we can all let you know what we think?

Or maybe before you decide to whine why don't you stop and try to understand what is so incredible about Jordis work, who knows? You might learn something.

Congrats!!!

Congrats Jordi Ruiz Cirera!!!

Taylor Wessing- do the maths!

The Taylor Wessing Photographic Prize at the NPG opens to the public tomorrow.
After you have paid your £2.00 entry fee walk around the exhibition and count up how many exhibiting photographers have had work exhibited in the exhibition in previous years. In the past of the 60 photographs exhibited 20+ are the work of photographers who have previously had work exhibited in this competition! What are the odds on that?
It just doesn't add up, surly it can't be a coincidence that the same photographers work makes it into the exhibition year after year?
There were 5340 prints submitted this year, at £24.00 entry fee per print that comes to: £128,160 a tidy profit once the prize money is deducted! The judging process is over 2 days, the judges looked at 5340 images on day one, assuming an 8 hour day, take away an hour for lunch that's 7 hours or approx 25,200 seconds which works out at 4.72 seconds a print! So the judges have roughly 4.72 seconds to decide if the photograph makes it through to round two or goes in the reject pile but amazingly those same few photographers who have exhibited before always seem to make it through to the short list! The judging is supposed to be blind but with the photographers names on the back of each print who knows? On day two of the judging the 300 or so prints that made it to round two are looked at again to select the 60 images that will be exhibited. The judges change each year but unfortunately not the exhibition it looks as mundane and uninspiring as ever, lots of blank faces staring into the middle distance. As for this years winner, taken out of context just another mundane image among many. How the judges decided this is the best image of nearly 6000 is beyond me. I was privileged to see some of the prints that didn't make it into the exhibition and in my opinion they were far better than the ones that did. It's time the judging process for this competition became more transparent and open to scrutiny.

Ooops!

A nerve appears to have been touched.

So?

What exactly are the merits of this picture? Could someone explain?

No skinny kids?

The jury really have gone beyond themselves this year...no miserable skinny kids, no red-headed teenage girls with animals, no 1980s bedroom scenes and no old ladies in vests in front of walls.
Overall, a refreshing change from the usual TW cliches.
And thank heavens they DON'T look like camera club competition fodder.

Beautiful

I am happy that this portrait is the winner. It is quiet and intimate. The sitter is more important than the photographer. There is something about the expression on her face, and in her eyes that suggest she is both of the moment, and outside of it. The contextual details in the background, especially the two soft focus figures suggest another culture, another world - away from the cynicism of today.

I love the simplicity and subtlety of the portrait.

Gorgeous. Congratulations to Jordi Ruiz Cirera.

Maybe it's just me!

Ah, the TW Prize and the "Disgruntled of Tonbridge Wells" - again!

Yes, it throws up some absolutely bizarre winners and finalists, witness last year's 1st prize, but it was shot on 6x7!

This year - what were they thinking?!
But wait, hold the front page!

If I don't understand why image X wins or image Y is short listed, maybe, just maybe, (I'm) not producing the body of work that is considered by my peers as good enough if my own work is not winning! Now there's a thought.

This self diagnostic review of one's own body of work is not easy and it's nigh-on impossible for a leopard to change its spots, so instead of being befuddled, accept that your own view of contemporary portrait photography is not what's required at these £12,000 rarefied heights.

If you're still submitting to the SWPP, MPA, et al, then you're in the wrong place.

Reset. Re calibrate as what wins awards, bursaries and such like is not work you produce or understand perhaps?

Pretty portraits

Just a note to ppl who don't appreciate this type of photography. If all you want is to see pretty pictures that is no longer enough. It has been done a million or more times. I like well crafted images but I appreciate this type of portrait as well. There is no formula to photography but there is one that I think works. Form + Content = beauty.
I think that camera club type ppl tend to leave out the content part of that formula.

Pretty pictures are everywhere and the aim is for beautiful images which very hard to achieve.

As Predicted

I went along to the NPG yesterday to view the Taylor Wessing exhibition and did as Thomas Hunter suggested in his post on the 7th November (the day before the exhibition opened). I counted up how many of the exhibited photographers had previously had work exhibited in the exhibition. As Thomas Hunter predicted almost a third of them had previously exhibited in the exhibition in past years! How can this be? Surely this is no coincidence? Not only had 16 out of 60 photographers previously exhibited, 10 of them had exhibited several times, many 2 or 3 times but one photographer 5 times another 9 times and another 14 times! Something is not right here, out of almost 6000 prints entered how come the same handful of photographers are chosen to exhibit year after year?

Fix

It's well known the out come of the competition is a fix, the same photographers miraculously make the short list year in year out. All those ordinary photographers that pay their £24 entry fee are being robbed! When Harry Borden was a Judge he even voted for his partner who just so happened to go on to be one of the winning entrants! When it came to light that she was his partner and mother of his newly born child did the disqualify her? No of course they didn't!

Transparency

As I understand it the judging of the competition is supposed to be anonymous, hence the judges are not supposed to know the authorship of any of the submitted work.
When the work of the winning photographer has previously been published in the BJP, the magazine that everybody in the photographic community reads this makes a mockery of the so called impartial judging.
As mentioned in previous post how come the same photographers work surfaces time and time again in the exhibition? Changes need to be made to the judging system, more transparency please!

Go-view for yourself

As suggested: I went to the National Portrait Gallery on Friday to view the Taylor Wessing portrait prize and one thing that struck me was that they're all hung behind normal glass (NOT non-reflective) & so the number of glossy prints that simply showed the people standing behind me in the gallery was quite disconcerting! Advice: have 2013's submission printed in matt / semi matt perhaps?

Overall I was impressed with the quality.

The winning print is not as good as that reprod' in magazine the rear two people are indistinguishable in the printed version.

Mark Rylance, by Spencer Murphy as seen in this summer's Telegraph's magazine was stunning printed Large ( 5x4 or 8x10 neg?).

So, if your work ain't making the grade, work out what is required by the judges and go and shoot work specifically with 2013's panel in mind.

Just don't forget the RA's Summer Exhibition submission.

D

Felicidades Jordi!!

Love it! Excellent portrait!