PF PHOTO CONTEST - Culture Club (3/29-4/4)

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around a photo contest themed "Culture Club," where participants are tasked with submitting photographs that represent a particular ethnic culture. The scope includes considerations of cultural representation through various elements such as architecture, costumes, and activities, while excluding ethnic food. Participants express their thoughts on the challenges of capturing cultural essence in photographs.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested
  • Conceptual clarification

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants express concern about the difficulty of the theme, suggesting that it may be challenging to find images that clearly represent a specific culture.
  • One participant mentions a photo of a wish tree, questioning whether it fits the theme of cultural representation.
  • Another participant reflects on the ambiguity of what constitutes "typically English," noting that England's culture is a blend of various influences and that finding a quintessentially English scene is complicated.
  • Several participants discuss the notion of multiculturalism and how it affects their ability to identify and photograph distinctly cultural elements.
  • There are multiple mentions of changing submissions as participants reconsider what might best represent their chosen culture.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants generally express uncertainty about what qualifies as a suitable cultural representation, indicating that multiple competing views remain regarding the theme's interpretation. The discussion does not reach a consensus on what constitutes a clear cultural representation.

Contextual Notes

Participants highlight limitations in their ability to find culturally representative images, with some expressing that their local environments do not easily lend themselves to capturing distinct cultural elements. There is also mention of the influence of historical and multicultural factors on contemporary cultural identity.

Who May Find This Useful

Individuals interested in photography, cultural studies, or those participating in community-based contests may find this discussion relevant.

ZapperZ
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Culture Club

Your picture this week must have, as its main subject, something that represents a particular ethnic culture. This could be an architectural element, costumes, activities, etc. The cultural elements must be clear and distinct.

Note that ethnic food does not qualify for this contest, since we regularly have food as a contest theme.

Good luck!

Zz.

Contest Rules:

1. Any digital photo or digitally-scanned photo relevant to the theme will be accepted within the contest period. In case there's a gray area, or you're not sure if the picture is suitable, check with me first.

2. Please resize your digital photo to no more than 650 x 490 or 490 x 650 pixels. You may also crop your picture if you wish. You are also allowed to adjust the brightness and contrast of your picture but these should not dramatically alter the look of the picture. But other than those, any form of picture editing or modification is not allowed. This is a photo contest, not a picture editing/special effect contest. You may add a watermark or your name/nickname to the photo for identification purposes.

3. Upload your photos to any of the photo servers such as imageshack. Then post it the relevant contest thread and link your picture using the img command. PM me if you do not know how.

4. Only ONE picture per member per contest. Once a picture is posted, it cannot be changed other than a total withdrawl by that member from that week's photo contest. Exceptions will be made for modification to comply with the rules, such as resizing.

5. At the end of the contest period, I will open a poll and every PF member can vote for the picture they like best.

6. Note that in case we have a large number of entries, I will do the polling in more than one thread. If that's the case, you can vote in each of the polling threads. The photos will be assigned in the polling threads in the order they were submitted.

7. These pictures must be something that you took, not something taken off someone else's photo albums or taken by someone else. I have no way of checking if you did this, so we'll go by the honor system.

8. You can use a picture only once. Once it is used in a contest, it cannot be reused in another contest.

9. Please post only pictures meant for submission in this thread.

Zz.
 
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Wow! This must be a difficult theme!

Zz.
 
Ok I will give one a try, See if you can guess the culture!

Picture061-1.jpg
 
Hmmmmmmmmmm. all the plates say CUBA... is it from AFRICA?
 
ding ding ding A lot of the Carribean culture is.
 
Moroccan

img8662om3.jpg


Zz.
 
Sitges, Spain during siesta (note the closed shops and beer consumption! Only thing missing is tapas... or gelato).

IMG_2910.jpg
 
You have less than 2 days left to submit a photo for this contest. Considering the cultural diversity that we have here on PF and, I assume, the diversity that we have in our lives, I'm a bit surprised there aren't a lot more picture submission.

Zz.
 
Seems I was overlooking the obvious choice here and entirely ignoring British culture :rolleyes:

No longer entered
A wish tree!
A Wish Tree is an individual tree, usually distinguished by species, position or appearance, which is used as an object of wishes and offerings. Such trees are identified as possessing a special religious or spiritual valual. By tradition, believers make votive offerings in order to gain from that nature spirit, saint or goddess fulfillment of a wish
One form of votive offering is the token offering of a coin.

This poor tree had a few too many offerings, and had died and fallen over...

Does this fit the theme?
 
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  • #10
matthyaouw said:
Does this fit the theme?

At this point, I'm no longer so sure.

The point of this theme is that if one were to simply look at a picture, one would have some culture in mind. I think, looking at a number of pictures submitted so far, it is kinda difficult to do that (I'm guessing that the picture that I submitted would at least invoke some reference to a particular culture).

Depending on what happens by the end of the submission period, I may have to decide if there are enough viable candidates that is in synch with the theme.

Zz.
 
  • #11
2203468397_87661412dd.jpg

Good old British pubs, full of good old British socially acceptable alcoholism.
 
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  • #12
matthyaouw said:
If not, I've got a shot of a traditional English pub, if that's any better:
linky

Actually, that picture may be more relevant, or at least, popularly related to the Brits.

Zz.
 
  • #13
Maybe the problem is multiculturalism, I'm not sure I'd be able to find a scene that was typically English any more. Maybe a tea shop, but that's just a cliché. Honestly if you asked me right now to go out of my house and find something quintescentially English. I'd have a hard time doing it. Even our historic buildings around here are either Saxon, Roman or French. Since England isn't really a united nation until after the Norman period they wouldn't really count as English, would they? Maybe if I lived in London I could take a picture of the houses of parliament or a beefeater. :smile: England and it's culture are a bastardized from of European cultures, as are most of Europe.
 
  • #14
Have changed my submission:smile:
 
  • #15
matthyaouw said:
Have changed my submission:smile:

Hehe, everyone one was thinking it but, it's not really quintescentially English, closing time violence, now that's sadly all too English. Pubs or inns came over with the Romans. :smile:
 
  • #16
I see your dilemma with finding a pic. What people see as typically English and what actually is typically English are two very different things.
 
  • #17
matthyaouw said:
Have changed my submission:smile:

matthyaouw said:
I see your dilemma with finding a pic. What people see as typically English and what actually is typically English are two very different things.

There's a bigger problem than that, I don't have any film in my camera. :smile: But yes it's hard to really find something that is truly quintescentially English. I suppose I could just go out to the country over the back of the hill and take a picture of a red phone box. But? Still a couple of days left, if I can get some film I'll go take a few snaps of the castles round here, if they're not English they at least are "English" if you see what I mean. :smile:

Hold on I've had an idea, what's the most quintescentially English thing about England... England, maybe a stirring scene, like something from the Haywain? That'd probably do?
 
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