There are numerous serious, consequential, and frankly, dire things going on in this wonderful and wild world of ours, and the last thing I want to do is write a whiny blog post.  That would be the height of absurdity.  However, there is a subject with which artists and craftspeople have struggled since the beginning of time in those endeavors.  A dirty, nasty subject called advertising.  It is one of those things we all need to do in order to get our work beyond our studios, but that most of us hate to do because it takes time away from the very work we do.  And to some, it seems "impure".  Advertise.  But how does one continue to make a living as a private artist without some way of selling the work?  A small percentage of artists have the gift of gab and could sell a watch to a pig. Others, perhaps through chance or intentional meetings, develop relationships and garner patrons who graciously support their work.  Many go to great extents to broadcast their work like seeds in order to plant work everywhere they can.  There are truly fine artists and craftspeople who work every day, making just enough money to allow them to do what they love.  Still others - amazing or less so - become wildly famous, for reasons both known and unknown.   But we all do what we do for the love of it, and try to put our work out there.

For photographers, one of the less expensive and less obvious forms of advertising is the humble photo contest.  I have mixed feelings about them, and sometimes go for years without entering one.  Other times, I see one or two that hold appeal.  Most of the time (although I try to second guess judges, which I should not do) I treat it as an exercise in evaluating and considering my work, not in anticipation of winning. So I was a bit surprised when I received an email from the Santa Fe Reporter saying I was a finalist in their photo contest.  Not knowing which photograph has been selected, I thought I would include all my entries here.  Which do you think it will be?  My choices roughly coincided with their categories, the main point being that the photograph was shot in New Mexico.  I made an effort to include both color and black and white images.  But I look back on the selections I made and wonder why I didn't use others.  As always, my choices were as capricious as the spring winds blowing today. 

The show of winners will be on April 25 from 6-8 p.m. at the Violet Crown Cinema, with a silent auction of the work for the benefit of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government.       

From left to right and top to bottom:

1)Adobe wall and snow  2)Williams Lake Reflection  3)purple asters against adobe  4)Wagon wheel, Fort Union  5)Native American corn  6)Twirl  7)Aspen 8)San Francisco de Asis Church, Ranchos de Taos  9)Rufous hummingbird on pine  10)young raven  11)Abiquiu geology  12)coyote puppy

adobe wall and snowTaos County, New Mexico Williams LakeKONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA  

asters on adobe Fort Union wagon wheel

                Corn jewels 5           Twirl             

Aspen profile            Ranchos church on a snowy night  

rufous hummingbird on mugo pine   raven chick  

Ghost Ranch geology   coyote puppy sitting

until next Monday,

DB 

a passion for the image@