Press Release

March 17, 2010
By Chrysti Shain

The Women's Committee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art has launched an exciting and unique Photography Portfolio Competition. Three prominent jurors will select six photographs to create a limited-edition portfolio that will be sold to benefit the Museum. One copy of the portfolio will also enter the Museum's collection.

The competition jurors are Tina Barney, the noted photographer; Melissa Harris, editor-in-chief of Aperture Magazine, and Peter Barberie, the Brodsky Curator of Photographs at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

The competition is open to anyone 18 or older, and it promises to draw artists as diverse as the museum's collection, which comprises great artworks made all around the world. It is designed to draw attention to photography's significance as a contemporary art form, and it is also part of a strategy to broaden and build the collection. Organizers hope to discover new talent.

"We want to collect contemporary photography very ambitiously and internationally," said Peter Barberie, Curator of Photographs for the museum's Alfred Stieglitz Center. "We must look broadly for new work, and this competition will hopefully bring many talented photographers to our attention."

In looking for compelling new photography, Barberie knows he has to keep an open mind and let the photographer speak to him through the photograph.

"To recognize strong work, you have to be willing to have your mind changed," he said. "It's not up to critics and curators to decree what makes a great photograph. It's up to an artist to use the camera in a way that makes us return to the picture again and again."

"There's no agreed-upon set of criteria for what makes great contemporary art," he said. "The current art scene is something of a free-for-all. Every good curator has to take chances on which artists will end up being significant."

With the advances in digital technology and the ease of sharing work on the Internet, new photographers are being discovered.

"One development that we must come to terms with in the advance of digital photography is that the medium has become ever so much more global," he said. "It's challenging. There's so much more material to see and more artists to know about. And it is tremendously exciting."

Barberie knows he's living in changing times in photography, and sometimes it might be harder to tell what's good.

"I want to know what's going on out there," he said. "There's more great work around the world and it's easier to see because of the Internet. There's a lot more to absorb. It's the world we live in today."

 
Hopes for the contest

The contest was conceived, funded and is administered by the Women's Committee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The Committee wanted a way to raise the profile of photography in the larger community as well as benefit the museum's fine collection.

The biggest fundraiser the Women's Committee organizes on an annual basis is the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show, which debuted in 1976. The show routinely raises more than $400,000 every year. An additional annual fundraising event was added in 1999: Small Indulgences, a trunk show held in the spring.

The group funds and/or administers many other museum projects such as Opening Galas and Form in Art, a program for visually impaired adults that combines art history classes with studio instruction, the oldest program of its kind in the country. "The Photography Competition is an exciting new project for us," said Cynthia Holstad, President of the Committee.

Museums often ask established, noted photographers to donate works for a fundraising portfolio. Because of the artists' reputations, such portfolios can sell for large sums. On the other hand, smaller non-profit photography centers and galleries often hold competitions where just about anybody can submit work, usually for inclusion in an exhibition rather than a portfolio.

"Open competitions are a great way for curators to learn what's out there in the broader world," Barberie said.

This contest will include aspects of both approaches in the hope of discovering new talent.

"What I'm hoping will happen is that we find terrific work by six artists who aren't very well known, and they'll gain a foothold, or at least a toehold, through their inclusion in the portfolio," he said.

The contest has no categories. Barberie and fellow judges Melissa Harris and Tina Barney, will simply choose the best photographs.

"Really, the jurors will just want to select the most compelling pictures," he said, "whatever the content."

Does that mean each judge might have a favorite? Yes. And the discussions about the work and what makes it great will add to the weight of the outcome.

"Artists really have to point the way about what is significant content in a work of art, and what is significant form," he said.

So what does a winner look like?

"I don't' know," he said. "The winners are going to have to show me!"