The Documentary Photographer

I’ve put myself forward as a candidate for the council of the Irish Professional Photographers Association (IPPA).

I’d love to be elected. There are three seats and six candidates, so I cannot leave it to chance. What follows is a political broadcast to IPPA members.

As professional photographers, we tend to concentrate too much on defending ground that is no longer central to our profession. Meanwhile, the real challenges facing professional photography are being fought elsewhere and often by non-photographers with whom we are not engaging properly.

As professional photographers, we need to realize that we are responsible for the state of our profession. The only reason the business of professional photography is struggling at present is because of things we as professional photographers have done, or have neglected to do.

Accepting that gives us the ability and opportunity to face these challenges positively and constructively.

Blaming others for our predicament, or pointing the finger at external factors, only undermines our ability to do anything about our situation.

By placing the blame elsewhere, we become victims.

By accepting responsibility, we gain control.

We have a wonderful profession. We should be connecting with each other and with our marketplace to enhance professional photography.

I would like to bring a sense of positive engagement to the IPPA council.

Please vote for me.

After two aborted attempts over the last 12 months, yesterday I finally got round to putting forward a panel of photographs to gain the IPPA’s Associateship distinction.

I’ll tell you this: I didn’t enjoy the process one bit. Mostly because doubts about my ability have been creeping into my mind lately.

The reason for this is easy to pinpoint. I’ve been scoring abysmally in the preliminary judgings for this year’s National Photographic Awards. Just when I think I’m producing my best work ever, it’s not doing well in competition. In fact, it’s getting hammered. That rocks the confidence a bit. We’re a bit temperamental that way, photographers.

I’m happy to say that my confidence is up again. The panel passed and my IPPA Associateship has been confirmed. And thanks to the IPPA’s reciprocal arrangement with the Master Photographers Association, the MPA will grant me similar status.

Before we (well, I) get too carried away, this is only the second rung on the ladder. Ahead await trials for the Qualified European Photographer (QEP), Fellowship, and Master QEP qualifications. That will take at least two years, more likely three, possibly four.

In the meantime, though, the Licentiate-plates are off my cameras. And as an Associate I can put myself forward as a judge during the preliminary rounds of the national competition. Now we’ll see if my entries don’t score better.

Click on the image below to see a selection of images from the panel that passed.

(c) Roger Overall

There are many rewards in life.

A daughter’s goodnight hug.

A cheque.

A cheque that doesn’t bounce.

A bottle of wine from a client.

An award.

Last night the winners of the 2010 National Photographic Awards were announced at a gala dinner at the Ballymascanlon House Hotel in Co. Louth.

For the second year running my wedding photography won the award for Best Reportage Wedding Portfolio. I was thrilled beyond words, and today I have a very sore head to help mark the achievement.

I also received the award for Best Pictorial/Travel Portfolio. That really only made the head worse.

Yet while people were congratulating me and shaking my hand, I can only claim half of the credit. Professional photography is a hard career at times. Occasionally, it beats me down. When it does, Anne picks me up, dusts me off and gets me straight again.

Were it not for her, I wouldn’t have been standing on stage last night. Let alone twice.

She’s also very considerate in the morning when my brain feels like a pin cushion.

Best Reportage Wedding Portfolio 2010:

(c) Roger Overall 2009

(c) Roger Overall 2009

(c) Roger Overall 2009

(c) Roger Overall 2009

Best Pictorial/Travel Portfolio

(c) Roger Overall 2009

(c) Roger Overall 2009

(c) Roger Overall 2009

(c) Roger Overall 2009

Sometimes I feel like Homer Simpson.

Not just because I could stand to lose a few pounds, enjoy bacon and drink beer, but because I sometimes do silly things. Not intentionally. They just creep up on me in moments of mental fog.

Take this year’s entry for the Professional Photographer of the Year Awards here in Ireland. A lot of time and effort goes into qualifying photographs, from which a final panel of four pictures is chosen and entered into a particular category. It’s a process that takes six months. So you’d have to be some kind of numnutz to put in all the hard graft only to slip up on a basic mistake at the end. You’d have to be a real Homer.

That would be me.

Having pulled together a strong panel of commercial photographs, one I thought might just catch the judges’ eyes this year because it hung together so well, I discovered that one of the pictures had a big flaw. A super-sized honker of a fault, big enough for me to decide it would ruin the chances of the entire panel.

So what happened? How did a sub-standard image get entered into the preliminary qualifying judgings in the first place?

Long story short – the IPPA uses an online submission system (which, by the way, is terrific) and I uploaded the wrong version of the image. I should have realized sooner – like when the photograph received a much lower score than I anticipated during the judging. At the time, I put the score down to a lapse of sanity among the judges – something regularly commented upon by photographers. Now I can see they were right and my sloppiness has come home to roost.

Doh!

The final national judging doesn’t allow any room for error. When we get to this stage of the awards process, the stakes are high and only the best work will do. A minor imperfection in a photograph (or indeed a whopper) can undermine the chances of an entire panel, regardless of how good the other three are. So out went the commercial panel and a valuable lesson learned. Entering awards is an exacting process better undertaken by Lisa than Homer.

I’ll still go for the single image award in the commercial category, but that doesn’t have the same cachet. Portfolios is where it is at.

Mercifully, I didn’t have all my eggs in one basket. In fact, out of the three panels I intended to enter, the commercial one was the weakest. I also have panels lined up for the the pictorial/travel and the reportage wedding categories.  The latter is by far my strongest suit. The problem here was reducing a dozen very strong photographs down to a quartet. Artistically, I’ve had a great year, producing my best work yet. Anne and I spent a good bit of time this afternoon discussing various picture combinations for the final panel. We’ll know in February, when the winners are announced, whether we chose the right one.

A grab shot of the layouts we came up with for the 2010 IPPA/RSA Photographer of the Year Awards this afternoon. Only later in the day did I discover the flawed photograph in the Advertising/Commercial panel (c) Roger Overall 2009

The last preliminary judging for the 2010 National Photographic Awards took place in Kilkenny on Monday. 800 photographs were judged on the evening during a marathon session. I entered 12 images and picked up 7 Gold distinctions, my best return ever. Now the hard work of compiling my final panels begins. I’ll be entering at least three categories at the national awards, possibly six, but most likely five. You can tell I’m in two minds. Possibly three minds.

Anyway, here are the photographs that picked up the golds, along with some commentary.

An alternative view of a bride getting ready. This provoked quite a bit of debate among the judges, not least because its documentary nature didn't sit well with some of them to begin with. They also disliked the horizontal format. However, once they started to analyze the picture more and the story started to flow from it, including the religious theme of the cross, they warmed to it more, eventually agreeing it merited a Gold. (c) Roger Overall 2009

This is my daughter dancing in the streets of Austin, Texas, in September. She loves music and she loves to dance. The temptation was too much. Some people thought she was part of the act. What always makes me laugh is that she thinks she has to pay buskers in order to dance to their music. A straightforward Gold on the night of the judging. (c) Roger Overall 2009

My daughter brushing her teeth. Houston, Texas. I loved the light and the way it made a commonplace daily event into something almost heroic. At the same time it is a very tender photograph. (c) Roger Overall 2009

This is the most personal photograph I've ever published. Another one from my recent visit to the USA, it shows dinner time at my Dad's house. My daughter had concocted something she called "ice cream" (all of her concoctions are called ice cream) and Dad is being fed a spoonful by his wife. I loved the way Emily is caught in the light and the joyous expression on her face. For once, the ice cream was palatable. (c) Roger Overall 2009

Kids. They're great at weddings. They get so incredibly bored that they have to make their own entertainment. I'd been watching this little girl for a while and her boredom culminated in this photograph. (c) Roger Overall 2009

Another child picture. As an adult, we forget what it was like to live life at 4 feet high. (c) Roger Overall 2009

On their wedding day, the bride and groom actually have very little time together on their own. This was taken just prior to their entrance to dinner and for me it is all about the two worlds existing next to each other, each without knowledge of the other. And there's me with a view of both sides. (c) Roger Overall 2009