http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11720601


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11721591

quote:

A picture of a teenager from Alabama on her first hunting trip to South Africa has won this year's Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize

The £12,000 award was presented to photographer David Chancellor for his portrait, entitled Huntress with Buck.

Chancellor inherited his interest in photography from his father, who took amateur photos.

The third annual ceremony took place at The National Portrait Gallery in London.

Chancellor spent two days with the 14-year-old and her family.

"I've always been interested in Africa. It's impossible not to be inspired by the place," he said.

'Powerful and beautiful'
"Once you are bitten by the continent you never recover. And for an artist or photographer, the light is indescribable."

Sandy Nairne, director of the National Portrait Gallery, said: "David Chancellor's Huntress with Buck is a powerful and beautiful portrait; a worthy winner amidst a strong international submission."

Best-
Locksley,R.

That is an excellent photograph.

Good to see hunting getting some exposure to the wider public.

Follow the links to Channel 24, the photo can be better seen there. Stunning!! A good picture to portray hunting.

Looking at the other pictures .. not much of a contest.

Pretty cool photo.

the colors and lighting are perfect it is a great picture

Great pic but I reckon she's gonna have steering problems with the reins like that.

Nah, you don't need to steer 'em when they're goin' home.

out of curiosity i looked up the un-cropped photo of the brit wife...

quote:

Originally posted by shakari:
Great pic but I reckon she's gonna have steering problems with the reins like that.

Steve,
You took the words right out of my mouth!!! That is the stupidest thing I have ever seen. Really if you are gonna give a prize to photo...it should at least have the chance to be real. With the reins UNDER the blesbuck...it is obviously a set-up and a set-up by a dumb person...keeps me from liking it.

quote:

Originally posted by 724wd:
out of curiosity i looked up the un-cropped photo of the brit wife...

I haven't looked and won't but I can only assume with arm pits as harry as mine she's not my type...

yeah, she's pretty hot, I love redheads. I don't care about the riding.

quote:

Originally posted by Greg Brownlee:
I haven't looked and won't but I can only assume with arm pits as harry as mine she's not my type...

interesting enough, she's got more hair under her arms than, ahem, her 'Australian' region...

Great photo.

Stunning photo. Might should fix her reins though.

I'm not impressed at all by that photo. Besides the reins, as previously mentioned, here are the issues I have with it.

1) I want to see a rifle in the photo. Did she shoot it or did she not? Or did she just jump up on the pony for a photo opportunity.

2) The facial expression of the huntress is blank. There no sense of accomplishment in her face, no happiness, no satisfaction. To me her expression says. "I hope I'm not in trouble."

3) I don't like the title either, 'Huntress with a Buck.' It's a bok, an antelope or a bull. It's not a buck.

4) I don't like the fact that the entrance wound from the bullet is exposed. I feel that exhibits poor taste. It would have been just as easy to turn the animal over and lay it on it's right side instead of the left.

5) Furthermore, the framing of the image leaves a few questions on my mind. Why is the hind end of the horse cut off and not in the frame? There is room on the left border, take a look. The photographer could have easily nudged his camera slightly to the right and perhaps could have captured the entire horse in the photo.

6) The vertical framing of the photo is improper as well. There's too much sky above the head of the huntress. That's unnecessary. The picturesque landscaping and mountains are there in the distance without the necessity to show the sky above the huntress's head. Instead the photographer could have pushed downward and captured more of the horse's legs.

Counting the reins, there are seven issues I have with this photo, thus as a judge I cannot give it hight marks.
I've judged photography before and videography, and have also taught it at Northwestern University. Many of Anton Dahlgren's photos in a thread titled "Little "E" still going strong," currently on this board, would have received much higher scores than this photo.

Thanks Moja even if I dont deserve that. You can click the link above and see 2/3/4 prize photos also.

About cropping, I got some pm´s and people wondering and actually said "sorry you didnt get all of the face/head in the picture" ! But I promise I meant to crop it that way. I think that photo would look wrong with all of the horse etc in it JMO it was a portrait competition if I remember correct.

On this photo below the sharpness are only at the eyes, his nose are blurry so is the top lever on the gun.. Some people like it and some people dont...and I promise I could get this pic sharp all the way to China if I wanted to, it`s just a matter of taste.


Below are two pics of the same boy that are cropped two different ways, which one do you like ?

I get he whole portrait thing, the offsetting, out of frame composition etc...But in your photographs the artistic nature is obvious. It's easy to see that was your intention to do only half a head or leave out an eye, but this guy---well I just can't see anything artistic about it.

It is a clean photo, colors are crisp and in focus. And it's nice to see something from the African safari world won first prize.

I agree with you Marc, I don´t think that photo was 12K photo but anyway a hunting photo that won a big prize and of all the places in England !!!!

A good day for hunting !

There are 4 things in that picture. A mountain, a horse, a blesbok and a girl. What's missing is everything else.

There is nothing transcendent about the picture' nothing is brought forth about who or why. Now, AD's pic of the malaria-yellow-eyed gun bearer, that's another story.

Moja,

I suspect there is no view of the entrance hole because the death of the blesbok was due to bouncing off the bumper of the lorry while they were in route to their horse-mounted photo safari. The keen photographer, seizing the moment, hastily lumped the poor blesbok on the reins in front of the lass and exclaimed, "Hold the horns, and put on your best, 'I killed him' look!"

I'd be willing to bet that the pictures before and after this one show a different person mounted on the horse in a similar pose.

I'm just being cynical, but hey, it;s not beyond the realm of possibility.

A little higher resolution version of the COMPLETE photo:




Teen huntress wins UK photo prize
Posted Wed Nov 10, 2010 11:44am AEDT

An image of an American teen girl astride a horse with a dead antelope slung over it has won a major photographic prize awarded by Britain's National Portrait Gallery.

British photographer David Chancellor's Huntress With Buck shows 14-year-old Josie Slaughter from Alabama returning to a camp in rural South Africa with a buck she had killed earlier in the day.

Chancellor's winning portrait is from the 49-year-old photographer's project documenting hunters, the hunted and spaces associated with hunting.

"The contrast between the peace and tranquility of the location, plus Josie's ethereal beauty and the dead buck was what I wanted to explore," Chancellor said in the statement.

"Here was a vulnerability and yet also a strength."

Six judges selected 60 portraits for the finalists' exhibition from nearly 6,000 submissions entered by 2,401 photographers.

"David Chancellor's Huntress With Buck is a powerful and beautiful portrait; a worthy winner amidst a strong international submission," National Portrait Gallery director and panel judge Sandy Nairne said.

- Reuters



Hmmm.... It looks like hunting is popular with Josie Slaughter and her family!


See: http://www.sheexpeditions.com/index.php









-Bob F.

quote:

Originally posted by BaxterB:
I suspect there is no view of the entrance hole because the death of the blesbok was due to bouncing off the bumper of the lorry while they were in route to their horse-mounted photo safari. The keen photographer, seizing the moment, hastily lumped the poor blesbok on the reins in front of the lass and exclaimed, "Hold the horns, and put on your best, 'I killed him' look!"

I'd be willing to bet that the pictures before and after this one show a different person mounted on the horse in a similar pose.

I'm just being cynical, but hey, it;s not beyond the realm of possibility.

And I believe you would be dead wrong. And, yes, you are being very cynical.

Take a look at her family's website:

See: http://www.sheexpeditions.com/index.php

-Bob F.

Bob it's a friggin joke man... if ya cant get that from the ri-damn-diculous nature of that half of the post i'll type slower.

Although I stand by my thoughts on the pic itself.

""British photographer David Chancellor's Huntress With Buck shows 14-year-old Josie Slaughter from Alabama returning to a camp in rural South Africa with a buck she had killed earlier in the day""

I think the above comments on the reins are quite appropriate given that statement.

quote:

Originally posted by BaxterB:
Bob it's a friggin joke man... if ya cant get that from the ri-damn-diculous nature of that half of the post i'll type slower.

Yeah well... whatever....

BTW, did I type my reply slow enough for you?

-Bob F.

quote:

Originally posted by Bwana Moja:
I'm not impressed at all by that photo.

So how did your photos do in the contest?

Damn Bob, what did I ever do to you?

i make a silly statement about a picture that is obviously tongue in cheek, identify the fact for a little humourous interlude and get slammed by the sensibility police.

And then I get a double middle finger salute. I tell you, some people...

oh, and don't regift a mild insult, it's not polite.

quote:

Originally posted by Frostbit:

quote:

Originally posted by Bwana Moja:
I'm not impressed at all by that photo.

So how did your photos do in the contest?

Jim......that got a good laugh!!!!

Brett

some horses can be "leg-reined'.

It's a beautiful color shot of life, death, nature, and beauty.

It would be timeless if leather boots had been worn.

Steve,

Not sure what you mean by leg reined? - but FWIW, when I was a youngster, I was taught by my old riding teacher (Fred Morris who was an ex-Household cavalryman) to ride hands off and steer with my knees.

Would that be the same thing?

You're right about the boots but I'm not sure how you'd get the horse to wear boots!

More seriously, yes, boots would have made a difference and perhaps also proper jodphurs.

Doc,
you have to forgive Steve he was edukated in englisher
AND it's a photo contest!! it does not have to be 100% correct in content or pose can you sat ART FORM

quote:

some horses can be "leg-reined'.

You are correct...but...NOBODY in there right mind that knows anything about a horse would throw a blesbok over the reins for anything except A QUICK SNAP OF A CAMERA...and only an idiot would do that!

It is stupid...so for someone who makes his living everyday with horses...it is difficult to get past.

It is the equivalent of a photo of John Wayne in his famous True Grit picture holding an RPG rather than a Winchester.

quote:

it does not have to be 100% correct in content or pose can you sat ART FORM

What about a biker babe sitting on a Harley without handle-bars...would you like that???

WHAT BIKE I did not see a bike

Beautiful photography. Thanks for sharing folks.

quote:

Originally posted by BaxterB:
Damn Bob, what did I ever do to you?

i make a silly statement about a picture that is obviously tongue in cheek, identify the fact for a little humourous interlude and get slammed by the sensibility police.

And then I get a double middle finger salute. I tell you, some people...

oh, and don't regift a mild insult, it's not polite.

Baxter,

I sincerely apologize. I was just in a VERY pissy mood last night when I posted my reply to you. Lots of worries, and concerns, about my job right now. I hope you can understand and can accept my apology.

Most sincerely,
-Bob F.

Accepted and PM sent.