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John Vettese sees what develops

by John Vettese

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When submissions closed for their photography group show, Erica Maxwell and Allison Krumm didn't have any cumbersome frames or clumsy prints to contend with. The work wasn't piled up in some stuffy gallery basement, and they didn't have to worry about who was going to pick up the entries that didn't make the cut. The submissions were — at that point, anyway — still floating around in the ethers of the Internet.

"We're so excited to get people's work off Flickr and onto walls," Maxwell gushed.

In most other respects, the second edition of local blog Phillyist's "Framed" exhibition doesn't differ from the typical group photography show. It showcases work in color and black-and-white, pastoral landscapes as well as bustling urban settings, and a general range of subject matter within them. There's the playfully absurd — Kristopher Chain-Harris' Boba Fett depicts the iconic intergalactic bounty hunter rocking an Ibanez six-string in a South Philly backyard. There's also the poignant, like Mike Drzal's color image Don't Drink. Don't Smoke. (pictured), a tight crop of an old man's weathered face, staring despondently into the lens.

But unlike many juried shows that still rely on physical submissions, "Framed" required entrants to simply post their photos to the Phillyist Flickr group for consideration. Krumm says the online photography community is so active locally, it's easy to generate interest.

"It stems back to Kyle Cassidy and photo blogging," says Krumm, noting that the West Philadelphia photographer's various Photo-A-Week projects, dating back to 2000, set a template for Photoist, the picture-a-day arm of Phillyist. "And with 400 members of Phillyist's Flickr group, [online] is a natural place to pull from."

Cassidy recently signed on as a judge in the "Framed" awards panel, along with Times Herald photo editor John Berry, pinup maven Charlie Ripper and PW's Michael Alan Goldberg. But making those initial selections was nonetheless an involved process. That task fell to Krumm and Maxwell, who say the standouts were not always obvious. To be sure, each photo was considered twice — once, sized small enough to fit their computer screen, once blown up to maximum resolution and requiring them to scroll back and forth to take everything in.

"When you look at the details like that, sometimes things you think are interesting really aren't," explains Maxwell. "And sometimes, you discover details you didn't see the first time."

They point to Dmitry Kushnir's photos as an example. Stuck deciding between two strong photos of Forbidden Drive in the snow, one depicting cars buried in a drift, one a pastoral image of the woods, they blew the work up. "The woods became this majestic, Ansel Adams-ish scene," Maxwell says. "And the cars were just cars."

By definition, collecting work online means all the submissions are going to be digital, but this show doesn't even include scans of silver gelatin prints. The closest "Framed" hedges to traditional processes is a single image, shot on film using a Diana toy camera, which was then scanned and retouched.

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Because of this digital focus — and because digital is so much more accessible to unrefined, first-time photographers — the Phillyist ladies say they were faced with many ridiculous submissions that were manipulated for the sake of, well, why not? Let's see what those Photoshop effects do!

"There were a lot of things like, 'I'm going to make this green,'" laughs Krumm. "Why? Why did you do that? Slapping a color filter on does not make a good image."

But that's the point of the show: to act, in many respects, as an equalizer. The chosen photographers will all frame their prints to the same size — 16 by 20 — so no one image draws away from the others. The winners and guests are being asked to bring canned food to the opening to donate to Philabundance. And overall, Krumm and Maxwell aim to bring out the obviously skilled shooters in their photo community, who might be intimidated by more formal juried exhibits.

"Some of them are in business as professional photographers but maybe don't show their work on a regular basis," Krumm says. "Others are students, or pure amateurs who have never shown their work before. It's a matter of getting them all exposure."

(j_vettese@citypaper.net)