Lecturing at the HIPA Grand Awards 2015

Its been quite some time since I discussed the concept of evaluative processes in photography for organisations who use print judging systems are designed to qualify their members as ‘professional’ photographers. Being privileged to lecture worldwide and have been involved in the design and inception of systems in a number of Countries, this has given me more than a domestic perspective. Its always been a thorny subject as, in a perceived art form it is said that ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’ and therefore a SUBJECTIVE process, defined as ‘Personal opinions, assumptions, interpretations and beliefs’ rather than OBJECTIVE, defined as ‘Observation of measurable facts’. At some point, for any system to function fairly a mixture of the two must be taken into consideration.

My role will be to offer suggestions, discuss quantifiable criteria and hopefully inspire a new generation of judges and re-kindle a passion in the experienced ones.

My sincere thanks go to Rocco Ancora, Ryan Schembri, Kylie Lyons and the Board of the Australian Institute of Professional Photography for giving me the opportunity to share and hopefully, inspire.

See you soon Australia!

Martin Grahame-Dunn