Gertjanbesselink (Netherlands), “Lake Inle Fisherman”/Photo: Gertjanbesselink
Israel is the home of GuruShots, an ongoing self-proclaimed “ World’s Greatest Photography Game,” in which the pawns are images. There are daily challenges and the exhibitions/competitions themselves are held in a variety of cities, each with several internal prize titles. They have been held in Manila, Mexico City, Johannesburg, Athens, Budapest, Delhi, Barcelona and Hanoi, to name a few of the venue cities. The exhibition currently at Bridgeport Art Center aims to award several competitors with prizes like “Ultimate Exhibition Shot,” “My Perfect Shot,” “Your Favorite Nature Shot” and ultimately “Travel Photographer of the Year.” Apparently, many photos are also rotated on flat-screen televisions, allowing GuruShots to claim to show hundreds of photographers’ images, but the screens were not on when I was there so there were only the small images mounted flat to the walls.
Romain Nouffert (France), “Daisho-In temple on Miyajima Island”/Photo: Romain Nouffert
As I wandered through the show, I was fascinated by the array of nationalities of the contestants. They were literally from everywhere. In a striking black-and-white shot, made in Inle Lake (Myanmar) from a photographer from the Netherlands by the name of Gertjanbesselink, a fisherman stands on one foot, the other foot on his oar, in the center of his large circular net. Romain Nouffert from France shows Daisho-In temple on Miyajima Island in Japan. The image is bathed in light that’s filtered through heavy fog and trees and is really quite spectacular. John de Bruyne from Belgium also chose black-and-white for his untitled image of a small boy holding a soccer ball, all but lost on a high, wide staircase. The strong diagonal lines in the photograph make the child seem even smaller. Clearly, in addition to being from all over the globe, these photographers travel widely.
Claudia Knight (United Kingdom), “Good Morning Rome”/Photo: Claudia Knight
Slovakian Martina Levasovska captures a woman in a bright orange damask jacket, standing on the seashore, eyes nearly closed, while gulls swoop and dive around her. In her image titled “Good Morning Rome,” Claudia Knight from the U.K. evocatively shows the eternal city in the early hours just after dawn, the buildings tinted by sunrise and the street blue with shadows. An entry from Slovenia, by Matjaz Simic titled “Winter Morning,” portrays a snowy scene next to a frozen lake. A small red cabin with crisp white trim stands on stilts, while a yard light creates the sole point of warmth in the image.
Understandably, as this is a competition in which most of the prizes are for nature photography—there are dozens of photographs of insects, birds and animals, horizons, mountains and deserts—but it is the images I’ve written about above that struck me most strongly. It’s hard to imagine becoming desensitized to the beauty of nature, yet the sheer volume of vistas and expansive scenes is a bit overwhelming—somehow it made those with people and civilization all the more appealing.
“GuruShots: Photo Exhibition Chicago” is on view at Bridgeport Art Center, 1200 West 35th, through September 6.
