And the $50,000 Scotiabank 2019 Prize in Photography goes to...

[petermfiore]

But, boy, is it a good investment!

It's worth it because the buyer said so...It's a great painting, but not Monet's greatest. Now to debate taste and preference!

Peter

[elliot_n]

The Impressionists are group that the artist's of today don't even look toward. Sure they know who is who, but that's about as far as it goes.

Stephen Waddell, it seems to me, has looked at The Impressionists very closely.

[amolitor]

Stephen Waddell, it seems to me, has looked at The Impressionists very closely.

I think you could argue that he's looked at Millet just as well, if you're picking out painters (but I do not consider any claims to be influenced by painters to be credible, I simply don't see it)

[John R]

After all these pages I had to look up this Waddell. Turns out he is also a painter, but not well known. The same Jeff Wall mentioned here, wrote something about him. Have to say, his images remind me of Ivo's work, which as we know is not that popular on this site. Here are some links:

http://www.artnet.com/artists/stephen-waddell/

http://time.com/3595580/off-the-radar-jeff-wall-puts-the-spotlight-on-stephen-waddell/

http://www.mutantspace.com/stephen-waddell-photographs-born-out-painting/

JR

[D Fuller]

It is not just a body of work, though necessary. It is also a network and life path. These guys are in academia, from students to teachers, in galleries, art circles, mingling with curators, critics, other artists. Those others then become jury for a contest and they will look for those they know and whose work and philosophy they are familiar with. These awards and contests are not crowd sourced. You and I may snap thousands of sunflower walls and never stand a chance. I am saying it without any bitterness or criticism. It isn't a single, take-your-breath-away shot. It is a subtle leitmotif, flowing through the body of work and years, known to the initiated only. Again, I am saying it without any bitterness or criticism. It is just a different world, where you can't just jump in and out for the purpose of the contest. You have to belong.

I think this is a really good point, Slobodan. The circle of contemporary photographers who appear in  museums have worked to appear in museums. Those of us who have worked for paying clients are not in that circle. We have different objectives and different measures of success. Perhaps a few of us will be recognized after our demises as museum-worthy, but not many. I guess that is OK. It’s not what we’re work8ng toward.

[amolitor]

It is not quite true to suggest that the only photographers collected by museums are the MFA crowd with their artist's statements and postmodern conceits.

What IS true is that museums are not interested in work that is simply variations on a well-mined theme, photographs which are more or less commodities. Attractive landscapes, weddings, store-front portrait shops, product photographs, theater photography Suitable For The Brochures, Web Sites, and Posters, and so on.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

^^^

In other words, applied arts vs. fine arts.

[fdisilvestro]

It is not quite true to suggest that the only photographers collected by museums are the MFA crowd with their artist's statements and postmodern conceits.

What IS true is that museums are not interested in work that is simply variations on a well-mined theme, photographs which are more or less commodities. Attractive landscapes, weddings, store-front portrait shops, product photographs, theater photography Suitable For The Brochures, Web Sites, and Posters, and so on.

So museums are not interested in the work of Sam Abell but they are interested in Richard Prince with a bad crop from a Sam Abell picture

[elliot_n]

So museums are not interested in the work of Sam Abell but they are interested in Richard Prince with a bad crop from a Sam Abell picture

It was a good crop

[D Fuller]

It is not quite true to suggest that the only photographers collected by museums are the MFA crowd with their artist's statements and postmodern conceits.

What IS true is that museums are not interested in work that is simply variations on a well-mined theme, photographs which are more or less commodities. Attractive landscapes, weddings, store-front portrait shops, product photographs, theater photography Suitable For The Brochures, Web Sites, and Posters, and so on.

I'm not sure an MFA comes into it, but maybe. I think museums are mostly interested in photographs that express ideas, which is, perhaps, why advertising and higher-end fashion photographers sometimes are shown. But working with the objective of being shown at a museum would seem to me to require as much deliberateness in its persuit as working to get hired to shoot a TV commercial or a print ad campaign, but focussed differently.