PROJECT: Iron Chef Photography – Fork

Secret ingredient:

A Fork

This project has concluded. You can see the results here.

I intend to run a new project each month for this entire year. So far we’ve looked at what you shoot with, and what angle you shoot from. For this project, I’d like to take a different approach. Introducing “Iron Chef Photography“! This will become a quarterly (every three months) project, with a new secret ingredient each time. The idea behind this recurring project will be to force you to think of new imaginative ways to look at mundane, every day objects.

Art is a huge part of the kind of photography we talk about here on this blog. I don’t do any kind of photojournalism really, and my main interest lies in fine art photography. One of the most important requirements of artistic photography is creative thinking. Good art is made when the creative process is applied to the subject and its presentation. The purpose of the Iron Chef Photography projects is to make you think about different ways of artistically interpreting the subject.

What do you mean by “interpret”?

Lets take this month’s secret ingredient as an example. A photograph of a fork by itself, such as the one at the top right of this page, has no meaning, no message beyond “this is a photograph of a fork”. The challenge is to give it a new meaning, or – through its use as an element in the photo – to give another subject a new meaning. Are you conveying a political message? An environmental one? Are you trying to shock, amuse or confuse? Does the humble fork have an inner beauty you want to show, or do you see it as a tool for the voracious consumption of death?

I encourage you to be imaginative, and explore an artistic message with your submission. Even if it is simply to take an incredibly beautiful photo of a fork. That could be the most difficult photo of all.

Project rules

• The photo must contain a clearly visible fork somewhere in the composition
• This must be a physical and literal fork, or its impression, not a metaphorical fork, such as a fork in the road
• Any kind of literal fork is allowed, eg: dinner fork, pitch fork, tuning fork
• Use any camera that you like
• The photo must be taken within the period of the project
• I will be accepting ONE and only one entry per person, so pick your best shot
• Upload the photo to your preferred photo sharing service or blog
• All submissions must be on publicly accessible pages – no myspace or facebook accounts please
• Submit your entry by filling out the form below
• You agree to the Terms of Entry

Whether a photograph is appropriate is finally up to my discression. If I reject an entry, I’ll give a full explanation why. You may take another photo and submit that in its place. It pays to submit your entry early!

Some new rules

This time around, there’s a couple of changes for the project:

• Submissions will be displayed anonymously. This means I will be unable to link to your blog or flickr page till after the voting has concluded.
• The vote will determine the winner of the Public Choice.
• The Judge’s choice and honorable mentions will be chosen by an as-yet undetermined judge or judges.

These changes simply reflect what I am learning about the best way to run photo projects. They are not intended to disadvantage or help any specific participants. There is no guarantee that the next project will be run the same way.

Judging.

Once the due date has passed, I’ll collate the entries and make a voting page where the photos can be seen by everyone. Readers will choose their favourite entry and place a vote for it. Voting will close on MARCH 30th (midnight AEST) and the results will be posted to the blog the next day.

Make sure you read and agree to the Terms before submitting your entry.

Iron Chef Photographers… STARTOU!

This project has concluded. You can see the results here.

Terms: Any photo that you submit remains your sole property. I (Neil Creek) make no claims of ownership or copyright. By submitting a link to your photo, you grant me the right to include a copy of the photo, or a thumbnail of the photo in future posts on the blog (Neil Creek – Photographer) for the purposes of conducting the project, or to be used as an illustrative example in other future blog posts, or for the promotion of this project elsewhere on the blog or on other sites not controlled by me. In all cases all photos displayed for any purpose will be properly attributed and links will be provided to the creator where possible. You also agree to allow me to place advertising on pages on this blog where your photo appears for the purposes of promoting a prize sponsor, or general advertising on the site, without any compensation. By clicking submit on the form above, you aknowledge that you have read, understand and agree to these terms.