The Grey Matters Photo Challenge was inaugurated on 25th March 2007. This new annual Black and White (B&W) photo competition was launched by Circle of Light (COL), a local photographic community that shares a common interest in traditional film and digital B&W photography. The goal of COL is to promote and advance the understanding of B&W photography and its fine art print production. To this end, COL actively organizes competitions, workshops and seminars to stimulate interest and share knowledge, providing the platform for the B&W genre enthusiasts.
The Grey Matters Photo Challenge is the first of its kind in Singapore, in that the outstanding work of the winners and participants will be showcased in an exhibition. This competition offers a truly unique opportunity for photo enthusiasts to challenge their ability to consistently compose creative and captivating images under stringent conditions. The participants were given a roll of B&W film (either 35mm or 120mm format) and 3 topics at the beginning of the day of competition. The topics were Light & Shadow, Lines & Texture and Reflection. They were given 3 hours to capture 3 consecutive images which must be presented in the order of the topics given to them.
The judges for the competition were Dr P N Chong, Mr Bernard Teo and Mr Wayne Umehara. The prints were assessed and judged on their merits as a set of 3 prints, not individually. The criteria of the assessment were: visual communication of ideas, composition, creative expression and demonstration of overall coherence and cohesiveness with the 3 topics given as a set.
The winning entries and some outstanding pieces from the event will be showcased in the Grey Matters Photo Challenge 2007 Exhibition. The photos were enlarged and hand printed in the traditional darkroom and they represent the best of the series in this unique and challenging photo contest. Grey Matters Photo Challenge prides itself in its devotion to B&W photography, a way of promoting it locally as an art form.
The photographers participating in this exhibition are: Jeffrey Yap, Daniel Neo, Nicole Quek, Annette Buchan, Christina Chen, Yuwono K. Rahman, Robert Tay, Benjamin Leong, Chew Kee Seng and Phoa K M.