The subtle manipulations of light contrast, focus adjustment and angle displacement can change the entire interpretation of a picture, leaving you gawking rudely at a collection of eye candy.
HHCC held their 88th annual photography competition last Monday, collecting pieces from the lenses of U of T students, alumni and Hart House members. Entries were siphoned into six divisions for assessment and judging: Black & White, Colour Prints, People, Places and Nature, Altered Images, Karsh Trophy, and Photographic Essay. Karsh Trophy encompasses shots taken of campus life and the Photographic Essay which requires three prints accompanying a short essay.
Spatial architect, multimedia designer and visual story-teller, Esmond Lee, is a Master’s graduate from U of T’s Architecture Program. He explains the distinction between the groups as a challenge for the photographer to, “think about their work a little more.” Concerning the dichotomy between Altered Images and the others, Lee explains, "As a rule of thumb, photo-journalists follow an ethic code of not altering the images for news-purposes. Similarly, artistic photographers are allowed to stylize, but they cannot add or remove content to the factual information and that's import as a photographer."
Behind the judges’ panel sat a varied merge of arbitrators for critiquing: Toronto based fashion photographer Miguel Jacob, Globe and Mail photojournalist Fernando Morales, and U of T philosophy professor, Wolfram Eilenberger. Technical execution and originality are key criteria, and winners recieve substantial monetary prizes as well as having their pieces decorate Hart House walls for a month.
Found at the top of the pot are those rare shots gleaning with intense colour and intact with symbolic, socio-cultural undertones; impossible to replicate from your average iPod camera.
“You take the picture, not the camera,” Lee advises to invoke emotional response, crafting stories from images, “It’s all more about your own perception and imagination than knowing the buttons.”
The Club will be showcasing submissions on March 18th at 6pm in the East Common Room, Hart House. Admission is free and refreshments will be served.
Toronto has a dynamic, thriving artistic culture conducive for the trigger-happy paparazzo looking to capture that beautiful moment. Hart House Camera Club hopes to extract that talent, interactively teaching its members and experimenting with innovative techniques. Yearlong membership can be taken advantage of for $25, granting access to traditional darkrooms and chemical supplies.
To find out more about the club, please visit http://hhcc.sa.utoronto.ca/. They also have a facebook group, listed as HHCC, where you can find convenient links to information on club events.
