Mark Garber, an IPC Juror with PPA comments in his IPC Critique of my Portrait created in Vietnam, "Untold Story": “Extremely strong, extremely powerful on the monitors...the black & white quality was gorgeous!"

Mark continues to go on and explain the importance of titling images (this is always the hardest part for me...titling) "I like your title…your title which I think some entrants because of titling is one of the hardest things to do…but titling can be utilized to make a connection with those jurors from the time the title is read and the split second the image comes up on the screen.  When you can connect with a juror via a great title, and I think this is a great title, instant upward scoring momentum takes place.  Now this could had been a terrible title and you could had called it 'Suzy'…but no judge is going to take off point for that but what happened then is you didn’t take advantage of them making that connection with the jury panel.

So again great title because you can really read that in there and the stories that could be told from this person would  be really amazing"

He continues with more of the critique on the image and artwork:  "Like I said your quality of black and white is extremely striking…your composition is just wonderful…you used the outside brim of the hat to give an nice oval around her keeping her eyes in yet again we have nice base with the body…a lot of dark tones which give the spectral highlights pop and give us a very dimensional look.  Extremely well done! 

Your  presentation I think nailed it…when you go with a darker presentation you are forcing the viewers eyes to go to  the lighter area of the image.  The lightest areas of this image are the mask of the face so well done with that…I think it would be a mistake if you went with a white or lighter presentation…because then we are drawing emphasis on the dark areas and we don’t need to be drawn down there."

I'm very happy with this critique as a Loan Image takes hours of work and dedication from the artist.  Each year I learn more through the process.  Looking forward to achieving my "Master of Photography Degree" hopefully in the next 1-2 years thru education and print competition.  Keep pushing myself forward!

SCROLL DOWN TO VIEW THE BEFORE & AFTER OF "UNTOLD STORY"