I just uploaded the above three images to the Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne Switzerland. I was invited to do so by the museum itself for their upcoming exhibition We Are All Photographers Now: The Rapid Mutation of Amateur Photography in the Digital Age, which will run from 8 February to 20 May 2007. Obviously, I wasn’t selected personally for this – anyone can participate – but if I win the contest that is part of the project, my pictures may well become part of the exhibition and the museum’s collection. And, thus, so can yours.
Cool? I’ve no idea. So far it’s unclear to me if all submitted photographs will be shown or if only a hundred will be selected each week. I may also have breeched copyrights with the first two. One features a sculpture by who I believe is a rather well-known artists, for the other I didn’t quite get explicit permission from the subject either. I never really got the finer points of these copyright regulations: what’s public, what isn’t? If the statue is there for me to look at, I can take a pic of it, right? If the guy is in the same public space as I am, don’t we forfeit our rights of depiction? The third is all mine, for sure. It’d be great if I won though, now wouldn’t it?
My entries were numbered 1673, 1674 and 1675, so I suspect chances are small, but I do like the idea behind the exhibit. Or, from the museums own attempt at answering this question: where are we all heading…
During photography’s entire history, the amateur and the professional have represented distinct and often contrary approaches to photography, each battling for supremacy. Has the digital revolution tilted the field of battle irrevocably in the amateur’s favour? Or has it swept this traditional rivalry into the dustbin? Can anyone say?
It’s true: we’ve all become photographers now, just like we’ve become movie directors, musicians and authors. As the blogopshere seems to be expanding infinitely like our universe, it’s always fascinating to pause and look at where we are. Then we can take a moment and ponder the question above. And have a go at trying to answer it.
Thanks to: someone’s blog in my feed reader who mentioned this but I forgot. If it’s you, whistle. You do know how to whistle, don’t you?
3 February 2007 at 4:25 am
Nice photo’s Nils, they feel cold.
4 February 2007 at 3:43 pm
I like the photos, they look very professional :-)
You are right in what you say and what the extract says, we have all became photographers haven’t we! I have never really thought of it in that way…
Good luck with your entries despite the copyright issues.
4 February 2007 at 8:25 pm
Thanks. I’ll post updates if anything happens.
7 February 2007 at 1:55 am
Good choices.
Phew. I have no idea what pictures I would send there if I should participate….
How did you choose yours, on what grounds I mean, what were your thougths behind the choice?
A lot of GOOD LUCK kicks in your butt :-)))
7 February 2007 at 6:51 am
Thanks Mrs L. Um, I don’t know really what made me choose these. Maybe I felt these looked the most artsy? The also have rather specific themes: social issues, diversity and photography… And they were all cropped to square, these three, so I might have felt they’d make a nice series. I haven’t heard from them yet, but I am rather curious as to what might happen.
28 February 2007 at 4:35 pm
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