I was utterly impressed with much of the POYI judging this year. Some of it was hard to watch, for example, in the world understanding category, when the judges were dismayed by having to award any of the projects. However, most of it was a joy to be able to experience, some of the most innovative pieces I saw this year were rightfully awarded.
It was also interesting to see the same stories awarded in different categories. One of my favorite pieces by the Virginia Pilot was, "The Chosen Ones". This story receieved awards in feature picture story, newspaper editing, single image categories and multimedia. What I love about this story is how each of the 5 sense of string components are so strong, the story would be lacking without one of them. I also appreciate the sensativity towards the subjects that is apparent in the photographs.
I also like Damon Winter's "A Grunts Life". I thought it was interesting how so many people got caught up in how he took the images, they forgot to really look at the photos themselves. Many of the images are strong, catching moments of intimacy between soliders, solid framing and light usage too. I also respected Winter's graceful decision to bow out from the blog debates and wait until the dust had settled to make any comment on the award for his photograph. His points about making the toning decisions before he shot the photographs was an important one, and made other photographers consider their useage of settings in camera.
Of all the CPOYs and POYIs never have I seen judges voice so much disappointment over a category like they did for the Global Vision Award. The judges were frusterated with the lack of editing down weak images, which only brought down the strong ones. The judges were also frusterated with the lack of time and effort that seemed to be put into many of the stories. I learned a lot about editing from sitting in on that judging session, never do I want someone to groan when they see my portfolio like these judges did.
I also enjoyed sitting in on the freelance feature picture story category. The judges, to Rick Shaw's dismay, actually approached a few of us after judging and asked what we thought of their decisions. With Rick's permission, we engaged in an interesting conversation about the mood of a lot of the stories and the overall feeling for the entries. This conversation was a treat. One of the most interesting conversations that took place during this category was the validity of how one of the people was holding a gun in a photograph. One of the judges commented, "I know people who shoot guns, and they have showed me how they do it. That's not how you hold a gun."
I also apprecaited the different feeling a lot of the winners had in this category. Often POYI and other competitions are pigeon holed into this stereotype of only awarding sad, depressing stories. The Black Label Bike Club is a great example of breaking this mold, it's an excellent quirky story about a subculture. It doesn't make you cry, but it grabs you the way a good picture story should.
