POYi Reaction - They got it right! Well, in one category at least

This year’s Pictures of the Year international competition featured over 1500 picture stories. This seems to be higher than last year, but I am not exactly sure one that. One negative found after looking through the numbers was that the Newspaper News Picture Story category only had 37 entries and the Newspaper Issue Reporting Picture Story only had 44. This appears to be a reflection of the downsizing of many newspapers and how photographers were and still are the hardest ones hit by these cuts.

Now we move from the negative to the less negative. Overall the judges seemed to be unhappy with the quality of the work that was submitted this year. Many of their complaints echoed complaints from years past. The one big one was the lack of proper story editing. A few of the judges would speak highly of a story, but would later vote it out because the edit wasn’t tight enough. In the final rounds, they said editing will make a story rise to the next level, or leave it behind.

A second, seemingly annual, complaint was the lack of visual variety in the stories. As the later round progressed, the judges would view all the photos from one story on the screen at the same time. This allowed them to compare the photos all together. On several occasions, a judge would make a comment about the size of the subject’s head being the same in all of the pictures, or how the photographer always seemed to the same distance from the subject. The judges said this made them loose interest in the story very quickly.

Another critique that I heard that was more prevalent than I remember from the previous competitions, was that the photographers were not getting close enough to their subjects. This is from a personal, emotional standpoint. Many of the stories that were voted out quickly in the later rounds were done so because the judges felt that the photographer was just there to shoot a story, not necessarily getting to know the person, or allow the people viewing the photos to get to know the subject.

A final, over-all, comment that was made was about the differences between a picture story and a photo essay. This isn’t a knock on the photographers more than an observation about the organization of the categories. The felt that it was very difficult to compare one against the other, or as Rick Shaw would say “comparing apples to tacos.” What I gathered from this discussion was that the two are obviously different in the way the are shot and constructed, they are also very different in the way they are consumed by viewers. This idea will help me in the future when deciding between a story or an essay and how I will cover each one differently.

Moving to a more specific realm, I am choosing to focus on the stories from the Science and Natural History Picture Story Category. I am sure most of my fellow classmates will speak to the other pictures story categories and I am happy to let them do so. This category had a large range of coverage. Topics went from natural disasters to more long-term issues such as drought and poaching. On of the stories consisted of light painting in which someone would draw the creatures that were native to the area. It went out quickly, but it was neat to see something that gave pause for a little bit because of its uniqueness. One story that stuck out to me was the one titled “Porcine Royalty and the Hunger for DNA Superiority.” It was about how the meat industry in the Philippines is being reshaped because of increasing demands. The story wasn’t necessarily that great of a draw, but the way in which the photographer shot it was. The story was black and white and a lot of the images were very harsh and high contrast because of the uses of direct, unmodified flash. This created an uneasy feeling as if the viewer is looking at something they are not supposed to see. It is dark and the only light comes in short bursts. It is a great example of how the story is important, but the way it is shot is also important. If this was all shot during the golden hour and had beautiful colors (like the mangrove forest story), it wouldn’t be nearly as effective. 

I had no complaints about the stories that the judges chose as their award winners. After seeing what was in the category I think the narrowed it down to the best there was. The mink harvesting story that was awarded first had everything a story should have. It had visual variety and it had a story arc following the animals through this process (it also worked as a process story).

After listening to the judges and seeing what kind of work is being done, I gained a better understanding of what it means to be a visual storyteller. It is much more difficult than some may think. But in that same regard, it can be much more rewarding as well.