The Grange Prize

Is essential for the audience to see Jin-me Yoon’s video work on line. Stills from video will never be enough about an artwork which is based on moving images synchronized with sound, an underrated component of video art sometimes buried by the domain of the visual.

It will be fantastic if you make it available.

Marco Antonio Cruz’s work shows the involvement of the photographer with his subjects,not an easy thing to achieve,a monkey can take the picture ! .its getting to the point where you can take the picture that requires the skill and experience,I was taught that if my picture was not good enough then I was not close enough.Marco’s photographs show a real concern for a real social issue,something I did not see in the other nominees. Graham Davies.

Marco Antonio Cruz’s got so deep into my soul with the picture of the blind guy going downstairs at a blind’s school in Mexico, I think Mr Cruz goes beyond the artistic expression of photography, he makes you have that sensation of being part of it… Thanks for let us know that there are a lot of issues concerning blind people in our country, your blind series is so moving. Saludos desde Chiapas.

L’exploration visuelle de Lynne Cohen est intéressante, et comme d’habitude, vide de présence humaine, ce qui accentue l’impression d’inhumanité. Mais j’ai préféré l’oeuvre de Marco Antonio Cruz car elle atteint une grande profondeur, en s’attaquant à une contradiction fondamentale: comment poser un regard loyal sur les non-voyants. J’y sens une tendresse, une humanité, une sincérité. Et une confiance méritée de la part des sujets. Personnellement, je n’ai pas compris l’intérêt des deux autres finalistes, l’un étant banal et à la fois pittoresque, l’autre étant une mise en scène qui appartient plus aux arts visuels qu’à la photographie documentaire. Mais peut-être que le prix Grange n’est pas dédié à la photographie documentaire…

I was deeply moved by Marco Antonio Cruz’s images and I voted for his work. I work for an international nonprofit, Seva Canada (www.seva.ca) that restores sight and prevents blindness in 7 countries in the developing world.

Each day I see photos from the field of those who are blind and who have their sight restored. I find it compelling that a photographer has used light and his sight to bring attention to this global health issue and the 45 million blind people in the world.

Me parece sumamente importante el trabajo de Federico Gama sobre las tribus urbanas en México DF.
Su acercamiento y su mirada sobre todo tipo de subculturas es un reconocimiento lúcido de la creatividad y el “saber sobrevivir” o saber vivir de comunidades marginales y ricas en cultura. Voto por él, lo cual no quiere decir que no reconozco los valores de los otros tres candidatos.

There is something so universal about Jin-me Yoon’s work has to say about belonging. I agree with the comment at the top, it would be great to be able to see her video installations.

Congratulations to all of the nominees, all the works here are about so much more than just a captivating photograph.

Marco excelente trabajo, además las fotos en blanco y negro son más artisticas, me gustan más. Te felicito.Saludos y Suerte.

I voted for Frederico Gama. I found his photos to be “alive”, “macho”, “complex”, “cool”, “colourful”, “fun”. Humanity expressing itself!!!

Marco Antonio Cruz, por mucho el mejor tema y las mejores fotografias “the best photographer”

I have tried (four times) voting for Marco Antonio Cruz, but for whatever reasons my email won’t go through. So let me say here who I am voting for. His photo is easily the most moving, and leads me to say that, in comparison, there is no comparison. (I lived one block from the PEI photo site — my late husband’s office faced the memorial — and I can’t imagine anything more flatly staged than this particluar shot, for example.) Still, I know that pictures move people in different ways, and for this reason I am sorry my vote did not go through.

Frederico Gama’s photos jumped off the wall – Mexico City is a place I love, and not least for surprises like a group of beautiful punk kids in the midst of centuries of art and culture and history, western culture taken up and made it’s own. These youths are walking works of art ! And thanks for pointing me to the Centro de la Imagen – definitley a stop on my next trip !

I was directed to the site by someone who knew someone and asked me to vote.All four artists are worthy of consideration. I think photography is not yet art until it speaks to the spirit. One complete body of images did that for me in ways I find difficult to explain. There were good hints and promise in parts of each of the others and I commend them. I hope that everyone who sees them is moved. The voting might be something of a reality show result. I hope not.

The Marco Antonio Cruz image has pathos, though we do not know what has caused the person to put his/her hands over face, but also it has wit, in that those fresh young cactus pears reiterate the hands’ fingers in their form and rhythm but also contrast in their readiness and ripeness, which combination unifies the image with much more significance and complexity than in any of the other 3. As well, the use of lighting is magnificent, for it is the tumult of the clouds that arouses our concern for the face-covered individual, emotion we might not feel if the image showed the same scene with a colorful clear blue sky on a bright sunny day. I voted for Marco Antonio Cruz because his image met my requirements (below). I expect the other images too likely have strengths if scrutinized in larger format in gallery, but they do not succeed on the web, for being either too cluttered and confusing (Gama), boring (Yoon), pointless (Cohen). It surprises me that I can’t even begin to see why the other images were even nominated, as I have nothing but respect for the “selectors”. I find this bewildering.

Because the competition description states that Grange Prize is to be awarded to “a winner chosen through an online public vote”, I felt the image should succeed on the internet without requiring viewers to attend a physical gallery to study the image, though of course this should also be made possible during the competition for those who desire. Nor did I feel I should examine any more of the artist’s portfolio prior to voting. This seems like a situation in which the image should succeed on its own and do so on-line. Advertising images can do this for marketing purposes, so too can art. Not that I voted in haste, for I returned many times to regard the four images.

It is interesting to see what others consider to be photos worthy of nomination for the Grange Prize. We are all so different in how we respond to these images. I get nothing from the images of Ms. Cohen or Ms. Yoon, not because they are not good photographs but because there is nothing in the photographs that reaches out to me. The photographs of Sr. Gama and Sr. Cruz on the other hand are good photographs that also have subjects that make you take them in and think about who they are and the possible state of their lives. Their photographs have life.

Definitivamente voto por Marco Antonio.

Resume en cada negativo su gran capacidad de expresar, tanto el arte en sí, como una triste condición en muchos humanos:la ceguera física;
aunado al abandono, pobreza y a veces desprecio de los que conviven con ellos.

El tema también fué tratado por José Hernández Claire (Guadalajara,México)quien ha sido acreedor de diversos premios por su obra fotográfica.

Felicidades Marco Antonio, me recuerdas entre otros, a Manuel, Lola, (ya sabes quienes) y al mismo Rulfo por tu manejo del blanco y negro.

I hope the photographers have done better work than is shown here.The black and white is decent but,i have seen far better work at local shows.

Siempre he pensado que el arte debe de levantar sentimientos. Las fotos de Marco Antonio Cruz defnitivamente “mueven” y estan llenas de toda clase de sentimientos.
Mucha suerte!

I’m afraid I have to agree with Brad. Many of the comments above mention other work by these artists, and I also agree that they have each produced notable work. However, each of the entries for this prize seem ‘staged’ and uninspiring to me. Certainly, there is not one that I feel compelled to vote for. I’m a professional cinematographer of 25 years, and as Brad says, I’ve seen far better work from local, talented, and driven artists.

I voted for Frederico Gama. Gorgeous. Very tribal. Lots to consider. Young men and women, status, brotherhood, enemies, style, childhood. It’s awesome!

El trabajo de MARCO ANTONIO CRUZ captura, atrapa y transmite mucha emoción.

te deseo el mejor de los éxitos.

” La angustia, la tristeza, la amargura o la desesperanza nos hacen ,siempre, ser humanos “

I love the contrast of styles amongst the artists chosen by the curators. Cohen’s spaces are imperfect, human spaces with a range of pretensions. Her image of what appears to be the forlorn interview room of a prison with the droopy tree in the corner evoked strong emotions — even the carpet looks sorrowful. The people in Antonio Cruz’s images display grace and agency. This is difficult material, and he carefully avoids sentimentality with strong forms, strong echos. The hardest material for me to grasp is Yoon’s, yet that may be because she is directly connected with contemporary art practice and her work best experienced as the installations she intended. My vote is for Gama’s work, who captures energy and force of his subjects through strong colour contrasts and visual design. What surprises me on viewing his images over again is how his subjects avoid engagement with the camera — this may be partly directorial, although all the moods are complex and many have strong ambiguity. I’ll be keen to see other projects of his in the future.

No cambiamos, nuestra cultura sigue siendo la misma, es increible como el Centro de la Imagen en Mexico carga los dados hacia Marco Antonio Cruz, ¿de verdad lo necesita?, basta ver los textos de sala de las exposiciones para entender esta parcialidad y campaña sucia, por eso votemos por Gama.

I voted for Marco Antonio Cruz, mainly because of the surrealistic and proffesional approach to an issue of health and spiritual realms, expressed with art in a profound, mystic, peculiar mexican style. Through the series of photos included in the selection, seers can feel the dignity, emotions and thoughts which inhabit the souls of unseers, the dimensions of shadows and the sense of tact, of perceptions which go beyond the capabilities exercized by the eyes of photographers and observers of reality. More than seven dimensions are present in Marco Antonio Cruz’s excellent works of photographic art, and all of hem move the souls of every spectator to the human mysterious nature. Francisco Álvarez Quiñones; Chiapas, México.

I wish to state my objection to this contest. I admire the work of these photographers, but I object to the AGO and its sponsors using these artists and their work for marketing purposes that have little to do with contemporary art.

I am also embarrassed by a selection process that seems little better than that of “American Idol.”

I wish your $50,000 prize, and the even larger amounts that are likely spent on contest advertising, could have been used to curate a truly top-quality exhibition, or (horrors!) to even commission new work.

Somehow, I don’t think Aeroplan, your media sponsors, the consulate of Mexico, or even the AGO would be all that interested.

I nevertheless vote for Lynne Cohen – her work is subtle, beautifully crafted, and very contemporary.