I had very mixed feelings about the work on display on the night. Not really have much of an idea what the judges are looking for, felt there was a bit of the Turner Prize judging air to things though.
In the Student Focus the two that really stood out were Juliette Martin and Louis Boulet both from France both heavily influenced styles by other photographers. Louis Boulet recreated Robert Doisneau’s “The Kiss by the Hôtel de Ville" originally thought to be a snap of a couple kissing and later the woman in the photograph revelled that the image was staged. well Louis Boulet's version was most certainly staged. To bring the image up to date Louis used a same sex couple in the image and instead of just passers by in the background we now have other people taking photos of the posed couple.
Juliette Martin's image reminded me of a photographers work I was shown years ago when I was studying my City and Guilds. I can't remember the photographers name, but I believe he was Japanese.
He put notices through people's doors in one neighbourhood and asked them that if they would like to have their photograph taken they should stand in their living room window at a certain time and he took a series of photographs of these people. Her image reminds me of these peaking photographs.
Probably my favourite category was the Open Competition for Amateur's. This is probably where the competition was strongest and produced some of the most stunning images of the night. The ones that caught my eye were 'Buffalo Race', 'Yee Peng', 'Going to work' and 'In the Countenance of Eternity'.
For the professional competition the images became more surreal. Some particurlury strange entries were a series of photographs featuring office settings and furniture. You couldn't
