The A.E. Backus Museum’s annual competitive photo exhibition, “Through the Eye of the Camera,” celebrates a world of wonder, most of it to be found in our own backyard. In this contest open to both amateur and professional photographers, exhibitors hail from Brevard, Indian River, Martin and Saint Lucie counties.
There are even a few artworks from Miami and St. Petersburg, says the museum’s executive director, Kathleen Fredrick. While there are no limitations on who can submit work for the competition, entrants must get their framed prints to Fort Pierce for judging.
“We judge from actual photos, and not slides. That allows us to take presentation into consideration,” says Fredrick.
Indeed, all of the photos that made it into the show are well-framed. They are also framed simply, and the resulting unity of presentation in the gallery speaks not only of the professionalism of the individual exhibitors, but also of the museum.
The quality of the pictures on display is high. As might be expected in a show of regional photographers, many of the images focus on the natural beauty of Florida, but a few intrepid souls ventured farther afield to places as exotic as Antarctica, the Galápagos Islands and Morocco.
Three professional photographers juried the show, whittling 217 entries down to the 109 artworks on display. The judges were Steven Martine of Palm Beach, a freelancer known for his travel and lifestyle photography; retired photojournalist Paul J. Milette of Fort Pierce, and J. Patrick Rice of Vero Beach, who specializes in sports photography.
The annual competition has been going on about 25 years, says Fredrick, who has organized the event for the past 16 years. Bowing to the times, there are currently six categories in the show, five of which feature digital photography. Only one includes film-based photography.
“I’ve been here long enough to remember when we didn’t accept digital. We didn’t think it was ‘real’ photography,” Fredrick says.
Nowadays, film photography has to share its category with what’s known as raw digital photography. Many professional digital cameras have a raw mode, meaning that the electronic data captured by the camera is not automatically compressed or otherwise processed in-camera. Unlike the images in the other categories, photographers had to submit a negative or a proof sheet (for film-based images) or a copy of their RAW file with their photo print to prove that it belonged in Film/Traditional Raw Photography.
The photograph that took Best of Show is in this category. Erika Masterson of Melbourne won with “Foundation,” a black-and-white image of a supine young woman in a white satin dress. The sensuous study is given a frisson of danger in the form of a wary-eyed lioness that crouches behind the figure. Far from being alarmed at her predicament, the sylph languidly reaches up to chuck the big cat under the chin.
Two other prints in the show by Masterson similarly make use of wild beasts in proximity to sweet young things. In “Sanctuary,” a little girl in a white dress hugs a bear that stands towering above her; in “Messenger,” a girl places her hand on the neck of a gazelle that seems to lean into the embrace.
First Place in the Digital Black and White category went to Susan Jones of Palm Harbor for “My Roots are Showing,” a detailed study of a banyan tree. In the same category, Susan Pantuso of Fort Pierce won not only a Second Place ribbon but also the show’s Director’s Choice award for her photo of a donkey. “Can We Talk?!” emphasizes the animal’s flared nostrils, inquisitive eyes and erect ears. The anthropomorphized ass looks for all the world like a nosy human neighbor homing in for a chat.
“Whenever a photographer can capture an image that is so unexpected, that can make every person who sees it burst into a wide grin, that’s powerful,” says Fredrick.
Most of the images in the show are in living color, but First Place in the Digital Color Still Life/ Portrait category went to an image that is almost monochromatic.
Captured on a cellphone camera, “Screen Shot” by Ralph Brockhaus of Fort Pierce is a close-up of a housefly on a window screen.
“There is some rosy color on the fly, on his back behind his eyes. The shoulders, I think you’d call it,” says Carol Brockhaus, who is Ralph’s wife and a staff member at the Backus Museum.
Don’t fret – the jurors were neither given the photographers’ names nor exposed to the photographers’ spouses prior to judging the show, says Brockhaus. The assertion is seconded by Fredrick, who says that not even she knew who entered what until the judging was over.
The award-winning photograph came about through “pure luck,” says Brockhaus, who stresses that the fly stayed put for just one shot. The digital image is so sharp that even after enlargement as a print, the particulars of the fly and its woven environs are represented in astounding detail.
Vivid color was abundant in depictions of fauna of larger proportion. Jason Litton of Fort Pierce seized First Place in the Digital Great Outdoors – Plants, Wildlife and Animals category with his over-sized print, “Majestic Wood Duck.” Mirrored in the calm water on which it floats, the duck’s emerald head, fiery eyes, purplish breast and buff wings are set off by areas of striking black and white plumage. Litton also won an Award of Merit in the category for a feisty-looking kingfisher in “King of the Perch.”
Two Vero Beach residents garnered merit awards in the same category: Carolyn Shafer for her fetching portrait of a penguin, “Chinstrap on the Go,” and Lisa Willnow for “Going Home,” an exposure of the south end of a Galápagos tortoise as it trundles down a forest trail.
Linda Leonard of Vero Beach was awarded First Place in the Digital Great Outdoors Scenery, Structures, etc. category for “Tannery in Fez.” An aerial view, the composition looks down on dozens of stone dye vats that, were it not for the white-washed buildings rising behind them, might be confused for colorful pots of pigment on a painter’s worktable. Third Place in the category went to Stephen O’Neill of Vero for “I Am the Light,” in which sunbeams penetrate the gilded gloom of St. Peter’s Basilica.
The Manipulated Imagery category features photographs that challenge the concept of photography as verisimilitude.
When it comes to digital photography, there can be a fine a distinction between images that are manipulated in the camera or the computer and those that are not, says Fredrick.
“Practically everyone is manipulating their images through Photoshop,” she notes. “The issue of what manipulated imagery is has become more tricky.”
The prizewinners in the category had no trouble distinguishing between truth and fiction, however. Port St. Lucie’s Kathy Graham earned First Place for her creepily beautiful “Maestro,” a kitty whose eyes are cracked green marbles in its blue and orange face. Joining the fun, Barry Schoenholtz of Cape Canaveral showed pop depictions of a diner and a vintage Corvette. His “Best Joint in Town” placed third in the category, and “Candy Apple Vet” won a merit award. Vero Beach residents also received merit awards: Barbara du Pont for “Vortex,” and Lisa Willnow for “Gecko Fun.”
For visitors who do not see a ribbon next to their favorite work in the show, “Eye of the Camera” offers the opportunity to cast a ballot for the People’s Choice award. The results of that election will be tallied after the show closes July 18.
There’s a wide opportunity for the visitor’s voice to be heard. “It really is the people’s choice,” Fredrick says.