PhotographySA.com & the 2007 Photomarathon

Two things, (1) the photographySA.com blog and (2) its photomarathon.

How incredibly kewl is this…

The main image, on the front page and in the top bar, is the latest picture from Flickr tagged with ‘Johannesburg’ and under a creative commons license.

The blog in question is PhotograpySA.com by Babak Fakhamzadeh, Ismail Farouk, and Rat Western, very new school!

As these screengrabs prove, I uploaded one of my recent joburg night shots, tagged it with ‘Johannesburg’ and ta-daa! For a brief while I was responsible for the template imagery on their site and had some control over what these screengrabs would look like :-)

That in itself is pretty damn exciting in my book, especially for a photography site. Let’s have a look at the content shall we…

PhotographySA.com :: blog: More info on the 2007 photomarathon :

The PhotographySA.com photomarathon 2007 :: Johannesburg will happen on Saturday the 24th of February 2007, from 8am to 8pm in and around Fordsburg and Newtown… During a period of 12 hours, you will make 12 pictures. But, don’t worry, you won’t be alone. You’ll meet the other participants both on the road and at the different checkpoints in the area.

At each checkpoint, you will get a new set of themes to find pictures with. At the end of the event, you’ll hand over your pictures and a jury select both the best series and the best individual images. And if that isn’t enough, your pictures will also be exhibited.

All this inovative creativity is made possible in part by The Bag Factory’s ‘About Art’ program under the inspired leash of Bronwyn Lace – ” This is an enormous opportunity for both up-and-coming and established photographers to compete in a singular event in downtown Jo’burg.”

• 24 February 2007 8am – 8pm : Photomarathon starting at The Bag Factory
• 3 March 2007 3pm – 5pm : Panel discussion by professional Johannesburg photographers
• 15 March 2007 5:30pm for 6pm : Photomarathon exhibition and announcement of winners

I asked Bron about digital manipulation, and it’s an absolute no-no. This one favours the purists. There are two separate categories, one for digital and one for conventional photography – conventional, make that ‘film-based’ photographers will submit their spools which will then be developed and digitised by the organisers.

Fifty Rand gets you in the running, dunno who’s gonna be on the judging panel or what splendid loot might be up for grabs but me thinks that is besides the point. Wonder if one can enter in both categories?…

Who’s up for this? Aquila? Gregor? Ona?

See you in the streets of jozi!