A short description of the Punctum Day from istockphoto.
"What the heck is Punctum Day?
Punctum Day, August 19, was declared in 2007 by iStockphoto as a special day to celebrate creative excellence. The day holds dual significance for iStock because it was August 19, 1839, that Louis Daguerre first introduced an early type of photograph, the Daguerreotype, to the world and it is also the birthday of Jeff Howe, Wired magazine writer, who introduced the staff at iStock HQ to the meaning of punctum."
I think that sometimes creativity needs to be explained, even when 'images are telling more then 1000 words'. I guess in the last 12 months there where over 1 mio. files uploaded to istockphoto. Overlooking those files is simply impossible. I guess there are more then 10.000 image-pearls i would not even see here within the flood of approx. 1 mio new files which came into istockphoto within the last 12 months.
The result might be that 'one of the usual suspects' will win this istock contest. One image that had be IOTW (Image of the week) or FIOTW (Free Image of the week). One image that is in the Top Picks Lists of the early voted punktum images, or on the 'Most Popular Files' List.... Instead of having the contributers go through 1 mio files, why is it not possible that inspectors nominate e.g. 1000 images? Afterwards let the istock community make the final decision. The inspectors see much more images then every contributer or buyer just because of their job.
Another solution might be that a contributer can nominate one of his own files. It would make a lot of sense to allow a kind of caption or punktum description to explain, give background or context to the image he`d like to nominate.
Anyway. The idea of punktum day made me reflect about my own portfolio. Which one out of the images I took the last 12months is my personal personal favourite. After thinking a lot, i finally found it. It`s not studio, stock, beauty, lifestyle, fashion, landscape. It`s something private. I knew when i uploaded this image that it will never be a 'flamer'. but it simply has to be here on istock, my exclusive and loved photo-plattform and community.
So here it is, my favourite out of my portfolio within the last 12 months:
Caption:
This image shows my son finn walking towards the leaving airplane on the airport of windhoek in namibia. This image is not an edited snap it might look like on the first view. It`s a pure concept shot i had long time ago in my mind. Actually it`s a kind of selfportrait transported through my son Finn. (Background: Most people especially my parents say that my son looks identical like I looked when I was younger).
I think this image transports the feelings I have everytime when i travel on my own and i had to leave the places i have visited. Sometimes loney and slighty sad.. Behind every departure, every end, I feel a kind of sadness, you`re leaving friends, places,new people you met and might never see again. But all the memories I have in my "suitcase" together with me remain bright and colorful. And I`m carrying those memories with me, even if they are sometimes heavy,.
That is the reason why I processed the image completly desaturated, except of the suitcase my son carries with him towards the leaving airplane on this empty airport.
'lonely farwell' is definately my favourite shot I made during the last 12 months.
So thanks for the Punktum Idea istock! You made me rethinking and reviewing the images I took within the last 12 months.
