Neil Creek – Photographer

Congratulations to the Winners

The first Iron Chef Photography project was a very interesting and surprising experience, both in terms of the submissions and the way in which the project was run. For the first time submissions were anonymous, and perhaps more importantly, a panel of independent judges helped to choose the judges’ choice winner.

My initial concept for the project was to use a mundane object to convey an artistic message. The majority of the entries, however, were more artistic renderings of a fork, as a fork. With a handful of inspired exceptions, most photographers chose to take the most beautiful photo of a fork possible. Now, there’s nothing wrong with this, and it’s allowed by the rules, and I think we saw a remarkable variety and creativity with these kinds of shots. Various kinds of lighting, colour, backdrop, setting and arrangements were used to show striking images of forks. I was, however hoping for more “reinterpretation”. Perhaps next time, I’ll make the project rules a little more directed.

Having said all that, the quality of the images submitted was outstanding. The judges had a difficult time with their selections, and there was surprisingly little agreement with only two photos receiving points from more than one judge. There was even a tie for first place! As outlined in the project rules, that left it to me to decide the overall winner.

Below you can see all the photos the judges awarded points to in descending point order, along with the comments the judges gave. Given how difficult it was for the judges to make their choices, you should be very proud of yourself if you were awarded even one point.

		Photo by: Arlo C. Bates
	Andrew 3 points	A strong, graphic design with powerful colour. Simple yet effective.
	Brian 1 point	Simple, well executed, and bold. The background color is the first thing that jumps out at me on this one. It’s very strong, and it contains a certain level of imperfection in the upper right and lower left corners – much better than a solid background. The out of proportion shadow is the next thing that grabs me. The fork and its shadow exhibit a certain level of symmetry, but at the same time they are completely different from each other. Very bold! And a real eye-catcher!
	Neil tie-breaker	Good composition, vivid, bold colour, unique fork, but most impressive of all is the fact that the fork isn’t the real subject, its shadow is. The extreme contrast in the photo gives the shadow a presence of its own, even stronger than the thing casting it. The shadow is such a strong element, it has its own character and seems to be expecting an interpretation by the viewer.

		Photo by: Chica
	Andreas 3 points	This image combines great use of complementary color, lighting and shallow DOF, and it’s a striking composition as well.
	Andrew 1 point	Beautiful use of light. I’d love to see this in black and white. What’s up with the marble?

		Photo by: the_wolf_brigade
	Brian 3 points	This photo is right up my alley. For starters, it’s black and white. This is very suiting for this photo since there probably wasn’t a lot of color to begin with. In addition to that, the photos on the plate are what really make this image shine. The scene is so well composed and thought-out, I can seriously imagine this as a framed print hanging in a gallery from a famous artist. Well done! And very creative!

		Photo by: Angela Alston
	Andrew 2 points	Nice colours. Interesting use of technique combined with a close up view to create a colourful abstract image.

		Photo by: Therese
	Andreas 2 points	For the mystery that it creates. This image may not be technically perfect, but it makes me wonder, and that’s one of the most important things photography is about.

		Photo by: Anthea Brown
	Brian 2 points	Besides black and white, I’m a real sucker for gritty photos. The colors in this image just scream “gritty” to me. The harsh contrast serves to magnify that grit, and the background is very well chosen. The other thing I love about this photo is the shadow from the second fork – it adds an extra dimension to the composition and helps balance out the strong verticals with some horizontal. Great composition! And great post-processing!

		Photo by: Janice
	Andreas 1 point	I love the strange effect of this unusual configuration of forks. I’d really like to see a variation where the row of forks extends to infinity (well, at least completely through the upper right corner).

Public Vote Results

Angela Alston 25 Votes	Philip Sharman 20 Votes	Janice 19 Votes
David Mackie 18 Votes	Anthea Brown 15 Votes	Arlo C. Bates 13 Votes
Matt Parker 8 Votes	the_wolf_brigade 7 Votes	Katie Nelson 7 Votes
Amy 6 Votes	April Siegfried 5 Votes	Iain 5 Votes
Chris Hayes 5 Votes	Lynn Koellermeier 5 Votes	Cyler Parent 4 Votes
Georgy Bykov 4 Votes	kukolka2008 4 Votes	Chica 4 Votes
Oleg Kurapov 3 Votes	Royston Kane 3 Votes	Darren 3 Votes
Bob Stothfang 3 Votes	Chris/Aperture Image 2 Votes	Mandy 2 Votes
Pauline Riederer 1 Vote	Antoine Khater 1 Vote	Therese 1 Vote
Andrew Smith 1 Vote

Thank you to everyone who participated in the project. Thank you also to everyone who voted in the public choice poll, and especially thank you to the three judges. Please have a look at their bios below and visit their sites to check out their fantastic photography.

My apologies for making you all wait for so long for the results for this project. It’s been a challenging couple of weeks (see previous posts on this blog for details). As a result of the delay, I have decided to postpone the project I was planning for April until May. Don’t worry though, we’ll still be doing a project this month, but it will be a lot more relaxed, with no voting and no winners, it will simply be a participation project.

Make sure to check back in the next day or so for more information about April’s project: Share the Love.

The judges

Brian Auer is a photographer currently residing in the San Diego area. He’s been actively pursuing the art of photography since 2003, and his daily quest is to become a better photographer. The Fine Art Photoblog is Brian’s creation and he has selected some of the finest and most enthusiastic photographers to participate in this website. He also blogs about photography at the Epic Edits Weblog and shares his work at Flickr.

Andrew Gibson is a photographer who was born in the UK and graduated from the Blackpool & Fylde College with a BA (Hons) Photography in 1999. One region he’s been drawn back to time and time again is South America, in particular Argentina and the Andean regions of Boliva and Peru. It’s for this reason that he’s moved to Argentina to focus on photographing and writing about these countries.

Andreas Manessinger is a photographer working in Vienna, Austria who spends his weekends in Carinthia, Austria’s most southern, sunny province. Since autumn 2006 he has a photoblog where he posts one image per day, and that means shot, processed and posted at the same day. His work is mostly street photography when he is in Vienna, and landscapes and rural environments on weekends, but these are no hard rules.