Toronto Photography Meetup Group

click on "view gallery" and get ready to get inspired:

http://www.pdnonline.com/pdn/content_di ... da84af6b01

Are you serious? I mean I liked Sumit Dayal, Danfung Dennis, Sohrab Hura, Brent Lewin, Eman Mohhamed, Andy Spyra, Elizabeth Weinberg and Yang Yi is more of a graphic designer, the rest did not inspire... The ones I mentioned are superb though

Thanks for the link!

I particularly liked Lauren Dukoff and Nick Onken.

Pretty interesting. Like PotatoEYE, some work really stand out and are quite impressive. There are a few that are very ho-hum.

I think Eman Mohammed had some interesting work - made me seek out more. Interesting to see the type of work she does as through a womans eye.

Very few of those did anything for me and the ones that I liked I wasn't blown away by or even moderately impressed. I've seen much better posted here and on POTN for example.

Their work is interesting because someone else is saying they're interesting. Just the fact that they've been noticed by PDN means something.

We only got to see three images per photographer and I highly doubt it was used as the basis of selection. If we could see their individual body of work, that would be something to make an objective opinion upon.

There's one image in Dukoff that strikes me. For some unexplained reason, it made me think of the book "Love in the time of Cholera" lulz

Thanks for sharing Andy.

OK guys - i'm going to work hard and try and make that list some day. First I need to learn what a histogram is. Baby steps...baby steps. I won't be quiting the day job just yet though.

Like others here, I found some of the stuff interesting but a lot of it was bland and pedestrian to me.

That's not to say that others won't like it or enjoy it mind you.

I always wonder where they find these "emerging" photographers.
Is there a contest?
Are they buddies of staff on the magazines that promote them?
Do they purchase "memberships" to some organization that makes them "special"?

Lately I question such things, I guess. Like, why they are deemed interesting? Is it merely because, as Taylor suggested, someone else claimed they were "interesting" or "inspiring"?

Cheers,
Dave

Wasn't too impressed either. Some of the cropping was quite bad. Same with the subject matter positioning.

Somewhere along the way someone said to me that when looking at pictures ask yourself what is unique or interesting in the way this was captured. What makes this one different then any other snap shot of same subject matter.

Looking at that I have to say I was seriously underwhelmed. There were some shots where I thought well done, really like that. but a majority I was saying to myself " Really??!! That is PDN top 30 up and coming?"

My daughter has just gone through the application process for Photogrpahy in College in the fall where Portfolio reviews were required. I have to say what I saw from the 2nd year students at Sheridan and Humber was heads above most that stuff

For Dave "double quote everything"

http://www.pdngallery.com/gallery/pdns3 ... anks.shtml

So. . basically they're buddies of people who nominate them (or they're known to them in some form) - clearly not just anyone can nominate nor can anyone just show up and claim to be an emerging photographer.

Like I said, I always wondered how they found them.

Interesting and thanks for the dig at how I posted my question.

Dave

The people nominating are not 'regular' people - they are in the industry and deal in photographic images for commercial, editorial and journalistic purposes. The people who nominate are often responsible for budgets (sometimes considerable budgets) dedicated to license, buy, commission or otherwise acquire images. Their tastes matter because they buy images.

Of course the photographers must be known to be nominated - why should they be penalized by a bunch of hobbyist for investing time and energy in their profession, including networking and marketing themselves and their work?

PDN is for primarily recognizing commercial, editorial and photojournalism work.

World Press Photography awards for news/photojournalism.

There are numerous other industry awards and recognitions. Look at their juries and nomination process and you'll find that it's not much different than PDN's. Should we discredit all of them???

At the end of the day, everyone has an opinion... but the harsh reality is that some opinions matter more than others (some not at all). Tough pill to swallow for some.

Ken,

I'm well aware.
I am merely asking the question and receiving an answer with respect to how these people get to where they are.

Yes, I'm sure they have paid their dues etc.
Not claiming they haven't but, as with anything, if you don't know the right people, say the right things, or press the right flesh, you don't get noticed

Yes, a tough pill to swallow for some

Cheers,
Dave

Dave - so your question about how they got to where they are was intended to be rhetorical? (since none of those photographers or the nominators are here on TPMG)

I wouldn't necessarily presume the emergers know the nominators personally and there are some heavy hitters in that group (Anderson, Parr, Soth et al) and a few I know myself.

The way I see it, a young gun comes to the attention of someone by way of a third party (hey, you should take a look at the work of this kid etc etc) and it goes from there. Don't know how it works at PDN but this is how it works in the world I inhabit. It's amazing how quickly word spreads by email of work that's really good and needs to be seen.

The question is who will have the legs to become someone who is consistently doing important work.

Ken,

I asked:

I always wonder where they find these "emerging" photographers.
Is there a contest?
Are they buddies of staff on the magazines that promote them?
Do they purchase "memberships" to some organization that makes them "special"?

It was not meant to be rhetorical.
It was a question - you know, like I (and I hope other people) often ask of myself. Do I expect an answer from myself? No Do I hope by asking it in an open forum that someone will know or provide a direction or answer. Yes.

Cheers,
Dave

Thanks for that - that makes sense to me.

Cheers,
Dave

Well, I was pretty impressed with the selection. There were a few photographs I wasn't terribly inspired by, but for the most part, I really enjoyed the photographs. Yeah some of them aren't framed 'well' or exposed 'well', but sometimes (/all the time) you need to break the rules to be seen. They're getting noticed because they aren't framing photographs in the standard 'right' way that everyone does. This is editorial and photojournalism work, not commercial stuff. I enjoyed it and found the selection to be very inspiring!

for me it wasn't about framing or quality, never is, it's about the subject. It always helps to have working framing, composition and quality though, just that little detail that makes it truly beautiful

I kind of have to agree with PotatoEye on this one. Some were really spectacular, others, not all that interesting.

you're funny

Personally I don't give a toss for much of the dreck these emerging photographers have produced. There is some quality there, mind you.
Really all I could think of at the time is: just WHAT are they emerging from?