From Vox Magazine: Finding a focus

Photo by Kristy Corn, Priceless Pics Photography

Published in 9/18 print issue of Vox Magazine and published on voxmagazine.com

Liking an Instagram post only takes the double tap of a thumb. Judging photography in an art exhibition, on the other hand, takes a trained eye and careful observation.

Orr Street Studios will host Photo Vision, a photography contest and exhibition, from Sunday to Oct. 25. In its first year, the open-themed exhibition will display image submissions from contributors across mid-Missouri.

Nema Velia, a color manager at photography lab Miller’s Professional Imaging, is the contest juror and will choose three winners in professional and non-professional divisions.

Velia made her photography industry debut in 1972 when she first landed a job at the lab’s Pittsburg, Kan., location.

“She is also a digital artist,” the lab’s CEO, Richard Miller, says. “She has taught retouching-type work at the national level for a variety of photographic organizations [and] of course, she has judged photographs many times in the past.” Velia breaks down the five criteria she uses to determine the impact of artistic and technical elements.

Instant Impact The impact of a photo can last beyond the moment a viewer first sets eyes on the image. Velia says she still gets chills when talking about an image of an actor from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

“It was the most amazing photograph,” she says. “It was a man in a hospital gown, bedraggled, long, gray, stringy hair, holding a child’s doll. The mood of it, the colors that were used, the starkness of it [and] the subject matter made the impact so powerful.”

Bend the Frame The photograph itself isn’t the only thing that matters. Photo presentation also plays a part in the viewing experience.

“One thing that we always said was, ‘never use a green mat because you’re always going to [look] straight there,” Velia says. “A green mat is probably the worst color ever to use. It’s just not pleasing.”

No Words? No Problem Whether it’s family members interacting with one another or animals on a prairie covered in snow, a photo has to tell a story.

“You want some kind of a reaction to the viewer on that photography,” she says. “The more you make them feel, the more they’re going to like it, the more they’re going to relate to it.”

Name game Competitors might want to consider Shakespeare’s famous “what’s in a name” line when entering their work.

“It was either ho-hum for the title or the anticipation of seeing exactly what it was about,” Velia says.

At one judging, Velia estimated more than 20 submissions were titled “Feelings.” Nothing about the moniker garnered a second glance, and after a while, she stopped looking at the photos.

Don’t sweat the Rules Skills and technical know-how are important in the world of photography, but unorthodox twists can add a layer of surprise.

“(Edgar) Degas was one of the very first artists to photograph and then paint over the photograph,” Velia says. “He was known as the master of composition, and it wasn’t because he had everything perfectly centered. It was just the opposite.”

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