JURORS:

Greg Hobson, Curator of Photographs, National Media Museum

Paul Moakley, Deputy Photo Editor, TIME Magazine

Christopher Steighner, Senior Editor, Rizzoli Publications

Juror Statement

First Place:

Anastasia Taylor - Lind

Jurors' Choice:

Honorable Mention:

PROJECT COMPETITION : Jurors' Statement

JURORS GREG HOBSON, Curator of Photographs, National Media Museum; PAUL MOAKLEY, Deputy Photo Editor, TIME Magazine; CHRISTOPHER STEIGHNER, Senior Editor, Rizzoli Publications

In the initial phase of our process we were faced with more than 700 diverse and interesting projects from all around the world - a daunting but ultimately very inspiring task. As a whole, the competition revealed a fascinating picture of what are the main concerns of our photographers today, what are the subjects valued for examination.

As we moved along, certain recurring themes emerged. Among them were some of today's most pressing: the aftermath of war and natural disasters in places such as Libya and Fukushima, humans' effect on the landscape, and migration forced by economic reasons. It was remarkable that though many projects reflected on the economic downturn that has touched so much of the world in recent years, there was still a humane and ultimately hopeful aspect that rose up through many of them. We saw many fresh and exciting bodies of work that revived well-trod themes by placing them in a new conceptual framework. With stunning results, quite a few artists worked within the home environment - some particularly focusing on how a family copes with illness within its midst. There were many entries that looked at areas that have long been in the midst of transition - especially the Caucasus, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East - but taking an innovative approach so that we might understand in a new way. It seems that almost suddenly many fewer people are concerned with the shift from film to digital, although there were a few artists who made use of historical techniques in order to reposition a subject. There was a noticeable lack of work done in the studio and seemed to be a move towards the outdoors or environmental settings. The majority of entries appeared to be documentary in some way, and those that rose to the top were naturally the ones that told stories in fresh, new ways. A number of projects used experimental processes but in most cases meaningful subject matter trumped pure aesthetic exercises in the end.

The works that reached the final rounds of the contest were distinguished by vision of integrity and consistency. The acknowledged projects as a group reflected the overall diversity that ran throughout all the entries. This group represents a veritable crossroads: Denmark, Mexico, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. But despite where the work was made or the nationality of the photographer, what made for a winning project was that it explored universal themes. They had an international scope in some way and hit on issues that affect us all.

On the whole, we learned so much from this experience - a crash course in what's occupying people's minds today as well as in current developments of photographic practice.

 

Juror's Choice: Scott Conarroe

Artist Statement: By Rail

Chimney Houses, Halifax NS, 2005 

Suburb, London ON, 2006 

Loop Canyon, Chicago IL, 2007 

Monorail Station, Miami FL, 2008 

Canal, Cleveland OH, 2008 

House With Pool, Shrewsbury WV, 2008 

Ball Diamond Parking Lot, Winnipeg MB, 2008 

Cul De Sac, Hawthorne CA, 2008 

Forest Fire Plume, Golden BC, 2008 

Wyoming, 2008 

Hobo Camp, Reno NV, 2008 

Mississippi River, Baton Rouge LA, 2008 

Patio Set, Thomasville GA, 2008 

Rail Yard, St Louis MO, 2008 

Storage Lot, Cochrane AB, 2008 

Streetcar Stop, New Orleans LA, 2008 

Streetcar Stop, San Francisco CA, 2008 

Trailer Park, Wendover UT, 2008 

The Coaster, Del Mar CA, 2008 

Prairie Tracks, Saskatchewan, 2008 

By Rail

Stretching from polar to sub-tropical latitudes and straddling the world's longest non-militarized border, Anglo-America is a vast geo-cultural bloc of the remaining Cold War superpower and a bastion of the British Empire. By Rail looks at the landscape and built environment along the railways of Canada and the United States. It evokes the contradictory narratives of romantic expansionism and post-colonial, post-industrial malaise. It considers the armature these modern nations were built upon.

North America is a product of railways. With its independence from England, the United States' colonial economy gave way to a mercantile society in which national trade was increasingly important. Steam ships and canals facilitated early transport, but the advent of a functional railroad system gave rise to the bi-coastal nation. Canadian confederation was contingent upon an east-west rail link that would foil American aspirations above the 49th parallel. Rail drove the most ambitious chapters of the continental saga. From the Atlantic immigrants and Civil War veterans laid down tracks, and from the Pacific raw Chinese labour broke through mountains. In Europe railways connect historic centres, but here most inland cities began as whistle-stops and imported populations displaced natives from the hinterlands. North American society has been uniquely affected by the ways railroads were built and financed, and by their sweeping command of the landscape. To this day we maintain a distinct, albeit puzzling, relationship with rail: while every other developed nation is decades into a renaissance of the technology, we insist Rail Is Untenable. Japan still refines its "Bullet Trains" even though Toyota is now the world's most successful car company, Deutsche Bahn anticipates record profits for 2012, and China is transforming its backwaters with a massive rail infrastructure overhaul. In contrast, we nurse a limp auto sector, unfurl more sprawl and pull up derelict branch lines for scrap metal. Whether or not railways could solve our contemporary woes, the vehemence with which they're dismissed here betrays a schism. Despite rail's role in this society's golden age, the automobile is the dominant symbol of frontiersy independence; the notion of riding with others to a common destination smacks of the bogeyman Socialism. In this culture railways are both a source of welling pride and a vague hysterical threat. It's not surprising that in this moment of uncertainty, when Western preeminence isn't taken for granted and the environmental costs of industrialization accrue, we are polarized into camps of Change and Retrogression. It is no coincidence that the change Americans elected in 2009 was also the first president-elect in half a century to arrive in Washington by rail.

Despite a polemical taint in my rhetoric, the series By Rail functions more as treatise than indictment. It considers the scope of disparate territories pulled together with rail lines. It inventories a geo-cultural feature rendered almost invisible through ubiquity, and it casts a sidelong eye at democracy itself by treating trailer parks and greyfield sites with the same regard as seaside vanity homes. Each scene is depicted with as much tenderness as frankness; this ambivalence between grand flattery and pointed critique mirrors the way the civilization rests between its illustrious past and a dawning era.