Thanks!

I would say be very careful about thinking that photographs are great because they have coverage and/or recognition. Very often mediocre work gets attention because it’s produced by someone great and vice versa. The BJP are looking for work that really pushes boundaries – not necessarily photographic ones all the time either. However, they need to cover subjects that are getting coverage themselves in order to sell magazines – they will take the occasional risk and publish work that hasn’t already got recognition but the majority will be work that has already got some form of community recognition – either through awards, curation, gallery shows (often self funded – or close enough) – this selection process is almost magical in it’s self reference (i.e. there are very few curators, editors, etc that make choices just because they like the work – normally it has to fit a certain zeitgeist or the artist should have the right CV – maybe in addition to being good work but it’s always an aspect in decision making).

So you can become ‘one to watch’ without having any craft at all (and perhaps even create great pictures without it?).

p.s. my ‘lifetime spent’ comment was as cheekily tongified as your own

Oh and an ‘olympus trip 35′ when I have to time wait.

Secondly, of course my study won’t stop there, Im pointing out that even in the basic study arena (at the beginning for some) the importance of capturing what truly is in front of you seems so critical to the craft that one complete quarter of the degree time is adopted to it. Maybe for a reason?

I once questioned the validity of some work by photographers as being ‘great work’ as we probably all do from time to time, I questioned it with my tutor. I had spotted some work in BJP which I felt was technically poor yet the ‘tog’ was named as one of the worlds ‘one’s to watch’ or one of the greats to come. The reasoning I was given by the university for perhaps this choice was that it isn’t always just about the images but the fact that the tog went ‘out there and did it’, they made the trip, climbed the hill, ducked the bullets. It was often about application to the project which makes one outstanding. So that said, Im wondering if this will now stem to how much tim done spends ‘in shop’.

He’s great, do you know how much time he spends in post..Legend! (tongue firmly in cheek)

But I think know where you are coming from, however even if you do subscribe to the “clone it out”, “clone it in” school of thought, composition is still of prime importance and you can’t just use the clone tool to get that.

Oh – just to be pedantic, Steve McQueen supposedly said “You’re twisting my melons man” and the quote was ‘borrowed’ by Sean Ryder for “Step On” by the Mondays (It was Derek Ryder who told me that! I used to have a beer with him now and again when we were both working A&R in Manchester – them were the days – here’s an interesting article about Derek – http://gbl.bz/A0JKfM)

I am presently spending year studying composition and the fundamental elements of it, yes A YEAR!

Photographers, I respect, are suggesting that I can get around a lot of that. As the Stone Roses once said…’Its twisting my melon man’ Clone it out? I thought I was to ‘compose it out’ ?