In case you missed my short article on the 31st Annual Photography Regional in Saturday’s Gazette: It was recently announced that the 2009 show will be an invitational, and the 12 artists to be included have already been chosen. You can read the details here, or go to the Web site of this year’s host, The Opalka Gallery, for more information (you’ll need to scroll down a bit when you get there).

I got involved with the Photo Regional as an artist when it started in 1979 and have volunteered to help coordinate it at various times, too, which is natural because it has always been a grass-roots affair. I haven’t always entered, but usually do. Some years (like last year), I get rejected; other years, I’ve gotten in and have even won a few prizes over the years. So there’s no sour grapes here.
But there’s little doubt in my mind that a chorus of objections will erupt as word gets around that this year’s show is not an open competition, because people always complain bitterly about that sort of thing.

Opalka director Jim Richard Wilson held the show as an invitational in 2006, and he caught a lot of grief for it, but not from me. OK, I was one of the 18 artists included that year, so take that for what it’s worth. Still, while I am not included this year, I am just as enthusiastic about his decision to do the invitational again, as I was the previous time, and that includes the choice of Elizabeth Dubben as curator.

Dubben took a different tack in selecting artists who are not all as closely associated with the local photo scene as those Wilson put in the last invitational, and whose work is largely nontraditional. (I’m familiar with the work of most of them, though a few are unknown to me — the full list is in the Gazette article and on the Opalka site.)

Interesting questions are raised by the choice of Dubben as curator and by her decision to go cutting-edge with the artists. Would you have picked the young, fresh Dubben to decide what goes into the venerable Photo Regional? Or would a more seasoned curator make more sense? As for whole the idea of replacing the traditional open competition with a closely curated affair — what would you do if it were up to you?
In the end, there will surely be some controversy about this show, but it’s clear that a very strong representation of work will be seen when it opens in March.

The big plus of Wilson’s preferred format, as opposed to a show that, like last year’s Photo Regional, includes maybe two or three pieces each by 60 or more artists, is that it gives the audience a chance to see more developed bodies of work by each artist. This is a benefit to all of us in the long run, as the viewers get a deeper experience in looking at the show, and the overall audience becomes better educated about photography as an art form and the vibrancy of the local scene, which photographers will gain from.

This kind of seeing the big picture is a tonic to the thinking that tends to say “But I want to enter the show!” For that, there’s always next year.

As for this year, I look forward to seeing the cutting-edge work that was selected, even if part of the fun for me may be in describing exactly what I don’t like about it. I also offer kudos to Wilson and Dubben for their vision, courage and hard work, and thanks to The Opalka and The Sage Colleges for hosting this community-based exhibition in their beautiful space for the third time since 2000.