Digital BW, The Print

Jason, Austin, All,

This has generally been an issue with the exchanges. It is rather
disappointing to send out your work and receive little or nothing back in
the way of comments.

In an attempt to overcome this I set up a private Yahoo group for the A3
exchange I moderated so that the participants could discuss the work just
among themselves and gave member access to the Photos section so that jpegs
of the images could be posted.

This resulted in close to 400 messages in three weeks among a group of 16
people. With the jpeg people even posted alternate croppings, etc.

Some major issues: It took a couple of bold individuals to get the ball
rolling by posting critiques; there is a tendency to just make technical
comments and then drift into tech discussions that could be done on the main
list; people have a hard time getting down and making comments about the
art, it seems to be an uncomfortable task; finally doing this in a strictly
text based mode is very difficult and very time consuming so patience and
some pushing is requited.

I set up a similar group for Shilesh's 13x19 exchange and only 7 out of 11
people joined and there has been little comment. I am at fault myself but
have been so involved in the A3 comments I have not yet gotten to the 13x19
exchange.

In the end if you want that kind of discussion you need to push for it. It
really needs to be in it's own group. You can't do it on the main list
simply because most of the list would not know what you were talking about
or be interested. Also if it is a private group the participants will be
more comfortable about making comments.

I hope that this is of help and will offer hope to those want to get more
out of the exchanges.

Martin Wesley

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jason DeFontes" <jason@...>
To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, March 15, 2002 9:57 AM
Subject: Re: [Digital BW] ...Print Exchange


> Austin,
>
> You know, I kind of agree with you. I did all that work thinking that it
> would help steer the discussion away from technical stuff for a little
> while, and toward aesthetics, style, motivations, intentions. I could
> have done more to push the discussion after the exchange was over, but I
> didn't think I would have to. I expected a flurry of responses, but
> there wasn't much more than a bunch of "wow, nice prints!", and a couple
> of threads, like yours, that never really took off. I don't feel like
> the experience was a waste of time, but I was disappointed that it
> didn't lead to more discussion.
>
> I'm also disappointed that Jon dropped the ball on the exchange web
> site. It would have been nice for the people that didn't participate to
> be able to see all the images. Maybe that would have helped the
> conversation a little.
>
> -Jason
>
> Austin Franklin wrote:
> >
> > > I'd have to agree with you about participating in the print
> > > exchange.  Amazing stuff.
> >
> > Hi Lawrence & list...
> >
> > I participated in the first print exchange on the Piezo list.  I must
say, I
> > was abysmally disappointed, in fact, somewhat insulted.  Not at the
images,
> > no, they were, as you say "amazing stuff"...but at the lack of feedback
and
> > comments.  It's almost like it never happened!  I went out of my way to
make
> > up a whole bunch of prints, pack them out...and I got zip in return
(yes, I
> > did get the exchange prints, but that wasn't what I was looking for).  I
> > even posted a "critique" on the list, and aside from one or two others,
> > NADA!
> >
> > So, given that, I'm hesitant to waste my time again, and participate in
> > these...
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Austin
>
>
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