Sky Arts is currently screening a fascinating series http://www.masterofphotography.tv/, sponsored by Leica, which pits a small number of photographers, both amateur and professional, against each other in an eight week competition. Each week, the contestants are assigned a particular project and they bring their output back to the studio where they are coached by a different guest celebrity photographer. They subsequently have to submit one print to the three judges for what can only be described as 'direct' critique and feedback. The tasks so far have ranged from street photography, where they were tasked to capture the essence of a particular place, to the naked body. The standards are exceptionally high and they should be as the finalists were selected from several thousand hopefuls.
It is interesting though that as one gets to this level, the relative standards are still quite diverse with one or two of them producing really outstanding work. It reminds me of a conversation I once had with a golf club professional many years ago who, as far as I was concerned, played like a god (I am not a golfer .....) but he was sadly resigned to and accepting of the fact that he was not 'quite' good enough to ever make it on the circuit. Malcolm Gladwell in his book 'Outliers' tried to capture the essence of this and deconstructed what he believed were the factors that made one person that bit more special than another. He attributed this to several factors, raw talent being one and 10,000 hours of practice being another. The emphasis was on the 10,000 hours where he asserted that anyone can reach exceptional standards if they put the work in.
Sky Arts, Thursdays at 8pm
This is something that the athletes who are competing at the Rio Olympics at the moment must be thinking about too. What is also interesting to observe is how the competitors go about their work. Some seemingly have a very clear idea of what they want to do before they start and others only start to create when they are standing with a camera in their hands.
I was particularly pleased to see Bruce Gilden, the renowned American street photographer, as one of the guest celebrities whose forthright style clashed with one of the contestants whose self view of his ability differered from Gilden's. Watching him do a double take as Bruce told him he would have a 'problem with photography' was great television.
Last week's episode was entertaining enough as one of the contestants stripped off completely to feature in his own photograph. He seemed to get great delight from this.
I look forward with anticipation to the rest of the series. I have a view as to which contenstant may win and it will be interesting to see if I am right.
#MasterOfPhotography