By ChimpE, at 08/31/2010 2:02 PM to Stuff & Things
Reputation Level: 7 - Post Count: 2
Location: East Coast USA
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For anyone living in NJ (or nearby), you may have attended a little event called the New Jersey State Fair (tm). It's a little over a week long, and is the best place to kill yourself on delicious foods like deep-fried Oreo cookies or blooming onions. For the most part, it's a great place to see things like tractor pulls, what cow won the blue ribbon, and the display of "#1 bale of hay in NJ."
However, if you're an artist like myself, I recommend you stay the fuck away from their art exhibits, lest your brain go into meltdown and ooze out your ears (only to be scooped up with nacho chips by carnies).
Mainly, I say this because for two years, I entered their photography show with a few pieces of art. It's not the fact that I never won a ribbon (not even an "Honorable Mention") that really pisses me off; no. It's seeing the photos that actually win. Flames of hate. Burning. BURNING. @_@
Every year the "Sussex County Arts & Heritage Council" gets to thumb through the submitted photographs and pick which ones they think are the winners. Now, I know "judging" artwork is completely subjective, and varies by each judge's personal preferences, but since they're a "council" and are supposed to be professionals, I would expect they would choose some well-done, classy, interesting, and new photographs to win.
Of course they don't.
Every year, when I went to see if any of my photos won a ribbon (which they don't tell you ahead of time; you have to go to the fair and check it out), I find that not only do my photos not win, but the most vapid, over-used, cliche photos win ribbons. There have even been photos that merely matched what National Geographic did (seriously) and won ribbons. Really? REALLY?
Sure, there's maybe one or two interesting, original, artistic photos that win Honorable Mention every year. Maybe. But the other ribbons go to these retards with a point-and-shoot camera that line up a shot like they've seen on a calendar, in a magazine, or stolen from somewhere else to snap a photo that takes them exactly a quarter of a second to think about and take. Some have even left the date-stamp feature of their cameras on, and still fucking won ribbons with the little glowing orange date on the photo. Fucking. Ridiculous.
They also let you know they're doing you a favor, and letting you sell prints of your photos there at the show, if you make them all yourself, mat them, and tag them with a price. Then they tell you that they get 50% of the profits. FIFTY. Average art studio commission is generally 10-30%, depending on how ritzy they are. When I asked the "council" about this, they said they take the extra proceeds to "help the fair." When I asked them what that meant, they told me "for setup costs and what not." When I reminded them that it was all volunteer work and no one got paid, they told me "if you don't like it you don't have to sell photos there." Thanks.
As a result, you can go fuck yourself, NJ State Fair Photography show. Maybe next year I'll submit some photo clipped out of National Geographic or maybe some vomit-inducingly sweet, cliche pic from Parents magazine, just so I can win a blue ribbon to literally shit on.
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