The fun thing about CPOY and POY is being reminded just how subjective what we do actually is. I often find myself disagreeing with the judges on what should or shouldn’t win an award. I think the category where I disagreed with them the most was domestic picture story — but you already know that and we don’t need to get into that here so I’ll talk about documentary instead.
I was surprised with the judges decision in the documentary category. I was certain that Maranie’s story about Kaylee was going to win. I really wanted it to win. It feels so rare that we get a cancer story, especially one involving a kid, where the kid is still living, where there’s at least a semi-happy ending.
I also was a bit surprised with the actual winner of gold because it didn’t seem to me as strong. It was beautifully shot but it feels more like an interpretive project than a documentary project. I know there can be some overlap there but it just didn’t feel like it was gold material for that category.
All week I felt like Adriana and I were on the same page when it came to certain things and I think this was the round that really solidified that for me as well. When what eventually became the bronze project was originally outed she gasped and said something like “really?!” or “come on!” and that was my immediate reaction as well.
What’s even more interesting to me is that my opinion on that piece changed as the judges talked about it more though. I went from thinking it was at least a contender for silver to thinking it maybe only deserved an award of excellence. The whole project is a lot of beautiful photos, but Scott kept saying something to the effect that they were pretty photos but not a lot of action. The more I looked at it they seemed to be a collection of documentary images but I don’t feel that the images did much when placed in a group — which is to say their meaning wasn’t altered by the edit.
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