The Grange Prize

I just happened to see the ad in the Globe and Mail this week and decided to check out this contest. I think that a competition with such a lucrative prize should be decided by the qualified judges and not by a public that could manipulate the results with family and friends voting for one or the other. Rather foolish if you ask me.

Having given that opinion, I voted for Jin-Me Yoon. While all four candidates are good photograghers, I am not one to fall for the shock effect. I feel it is much more clever to photogragh one’s self and make a statement about culture than to shoot photos of “punks and blind people”, although technically, they were very good photos and as long as one of the artists wins according to merit and not because they had many cousins, I think each one deserves the prize. Good Luck to All!

I really didn’t find any of the photographs that unique or compelling. It’s hard to believe that of all the submissions you got these were chosen as the best. Most of the photographs are dull and very safe. I also think the prize money is much too high- obcene even. If the AGO has this kind of money to give away why don’t you do something better with it like donating it to several charities. Giving $50,000 to just one person is irresponsible, especially during a recession.

As I viewed the images, I had to choose which image affected me profoundly. Each image has something to offer, but does it actually touch the soul of someone who is NOT artistically inclined to even give a picture a second glance. The picture I voted for showed the artist true soul. Marco Antonio Cruz photo proves that, if you actually take a second, you can capture a soul within the moment. Marco Antonio Cruz captured my soul.

I would not vote for any of these artists. Although at least one of Lyn Cohen’s photographs nearly blew me away, this is the most mediocre photograph(the one published in the Globe and Mail) I have ever seen.

LYNNE COHEN is, in my view, a brilliant witness of the ways in which the unconscious shapes the everyday. Through her lens she finds the archetype in the surroundings we create. The compassion in her work is profound but not blatant or manipulative. Every time I’m in a public space of any kind, from hospital waiting room to storefront, from library to elevator, it is Lynne’s extraordinary capacity for finding beauty in the complex forms our culture generates, and in the places of transition we move through, that provides insight and comfort. As a cartographer of the human condition via the (sometimes strange)fabrication of public spaces, and how those spaces shape us in turn, Lynne Cohen has no equal. With enthusiasm and respect, she has my vote.

I cannot vote this year. And I have seen the works on display at the AGO.

It is all old hat.

When Cohens stark depressing images first appeared they had something to say. Now it has been said and she has been repeating for, what, 30 years now?. That retro at NGC was stunningly boring (partly because there was too much and hung in a boring fashion).

Standing in front of tourism sites and having your picture taken is also thirty years old. Remember the guy with the Canadien jersey and hockey stick 30 years ago? Fun then. Now?

We have all seen this material before. The dullness here puts an interesting idea at risk.

I’ve been working as a Canadian artist-photographer (without support) for over 35 years, so I don’t expect anything from artworld institutions — least of all from some exclusive, subsidized, collegial contrivance…

THE 12HR ISBN-JPEG PROJECT (continuous hypermodern imagery posted online since 1994)

/:b