Photographer Ho Sy Minh - Vice President of the Vietnam Association of Photographic Artists - shared with reporters about the recent controversy over the revocation of awards and the quality of works in some photography competitions.
The contestant is dishonest.
Recently there have been a series of noisy incidents surrounding the competition photography. On August 29, the Ho Chi Minh City Photography Association organized an exhibition and awarded prizes for the 49th Ho Chi Minh City Traditional Art Photography Festival in 2024.
Work Construction site by author Lam Dieu Trung won the Bronze Medal but revoked a few days later because the clouds in the photo were composited from Adobe's cloud image library, not taken by the author himself.
August 23, the work Light of the future also won a Gold Medal at the Southeast Regional Art Photography Festival. But just a few days later, Association of Photographic Artists (NSNA) Vietnam has decided to cancel and revoke the award. The inspection board of the Vietnam Association of Fine Arts verified the work, the author confirmed that it was taken at a location outside the Southeast region, which is a violation of the rules of this festival.
Among the winning works of the 2024 North Central Region Art Photography Festival, the photo New recruits leave for military service was judged unworthy of the Silver Medal for lack of artistry.
June , photo contest organizers Vietnam world rendezvous 2024 suddenly announced the withdrawal of award-winning works due to violations, including the work that won the highest prize, but did not announce a specific reason.
Previously, many works, despite winning high prizes in domestic photography competitions, were still criticized for their low quality. In 2021, the author of the photo that won first prize in the competition art photos Despite the 51st Hanoi contest, many professional photographers still criticized it for using edited photos.
Photographer Ho Sy Minh - Vice President of Vietnam Association of Photographic Artists - shared with Vanguard surrounding the recent controversy surrounding the photography contest. He affirmed that the revocation of the award was due to the contestant's violation of the contest rules, not the fault of the jury or the organizing committee. The authors must be honest and take responsibility for their entries.
Artist Ho Sy Minh pointed out that regional competitions and festivals all have clear rules and regulations. However, due to the limited space for creation within the provinces in the region, and the continuous organization of the events for decades, artists have few new topics to exploit, leading to the frequent appearance of works with overlapping topics, similar to this year and last year...
"There are authors who are not honest or, in other words, do not play fair in this inherently healthy playground. There are photos that were exhibited or won awards in previous years, but the following year they changed color to black and white or vice versa to enter the contest," said People's Artist Ho Sy Minh.
Due to the needs and desires of localities, the Vietnam Association of Fine Arts still maintains regional festivals but gradually innovates and improves the quality of the festivals by means of fair competitions, not judging each province separately as before and innovating the organization method to achieve higher efficiency.
The Vice President of the Vietnam Association of Photographic Artists also acknowledged that the current state of photography in our country still has many shortcomings, with few artists receiving formal training, most of whom are self-taught. The Photography Department of the University of Theatre and Cinema only enrolls and trains a few dozen students each year. Not many of these students are interested in pursuing the field of artistic photography after graduation.
The selection of judges is also difficult because of low compensation and easy criticism, so some highly skilled artists also refuse to sit in the hot seat.
Regarding the competitions and festivals that left a stir after the award ceremony, People's Artist Ho Sy Minh said that each person's feelings and perceptions of photography are different. Part of the reason stems from the unconvincing evaluation and honoring of awards.
"In the general context of each contest, the jury also tries its best to consider each work, it is impossible to compare this contest with another. No matter how good the judges are, if there are no good entries, they cannot choose a good prize," said Mr. Ho Sy Minh.
He believes that through the competitions, the jury also needs to absorb and listen to public opinion to gain experience, and judge better in other competitions, not letting personal feelings or other issues overwhelm the competition criteria. The judging panel needs to have a high level of consensus when deciding the ranking of the award," said Mr. Ho Sy Minh.
On the controversy regarding the defining boundaries press photos Or art photography, veteran photographers also believe that any type of photography requires the photo to be beautiful, perfect in all artistic techniques, have necessary information and a clear message.
Termination of award but prize money still owed
Due to limited funding, Vietnam Association of Fine Arts It is necessary to utilize relationships and coordinate with ministries, departments, units, and corporations to organize many art photography contests and creative camps.
For regional competitions, once the jury has finished judging, it must be approved by the Standing Committee before being announced, except for direct judging. According to the Vice President of the Vietnam Association of Fine Arts, the two recent regional festivals that were judged directly without going through the Standing Committee have caused controversy over the results.
To avoid unfortunate controversies after the competitions, NSNA Ho Sy Minh believes that first of all, authors must be absolutely honest with their entries. The organizing committee needs to choose a jury that is dedicated, competent, and impartial when judging the awards.
"It is necessary to arrange members of the Criticism Board to participate in the Organizing Committee or the Jury of the competitions to have a general view and assessment. The biggest difficulty is still the issue of funding. Therefore, to improve the quality of competitions and improve the quality of artistic photography, the Government , relevant ministries and branches need to pay attention to supporting funding for necessary activities such as training artists, improving the quality of creation... ", Mr. Ho Sy Minh proposed.
The Vice President of the Association of Vietnamese Artists said that the third quarter is almost over, the regional competitions and festivals are almost over but the funding is still not available. The awards and medals have been awarded but the prize money is still owed to the authors.
Looking at the reality from some photography competitions, NSNA Pham Cong Thang - founder of the exhibition space Photographic memories - It is recommended that after each exhibition or contest, the organizing committee and the Vietnam Association of Photographic Artists should organize seminars, inviting members of the theoretical council and prestigious photographers to participate in discussions and draw lessons.
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