This was a relatively quiet MSA, but nevertheless the high quality of the entries made it a real challenge to choose one over all the others.
Among other things, I was intrigued by the fact that we started with NedL’s pinhole image and finished with awty’s Holga image, with all sorts of interesting and more traditional approaches between.
I’ll start first with a listing of the submissions, along with some comments.
Starting first with the images posted in the Photrio “Monthly Shooting Assignment” Gallery:
1) NedL’s “Rhythm (of redwood trees)”
a very satisfying use of pinhole. The tones and curves repeat themselves rhythmically - not unlike the cycles of life experienced by these trees, which may very well have seen many such rhythms and cycles;
PhxMedFormatPhotog’s following four entries:
2) "We'll Cross That Bridge When We Get There"
Engineering sometimes seems to compel rhythmic patterns. These bridges are an excellent example, and this photograph captures that rhythm well;
3) "Falling Off The Beat"
I’m not sure which rhythms are stronger in this photograph - the rhythms of the repeating shapes or the rhythms of the passing decades, as structures fall and into decay. Either way, this is an interesting approach to the subject;
4) "And The Beat Goes On"
The repeating shapes are strong in this photo. The foreground is, however, slightly distracting. Still a good submission though;
5) "Round And Round"
Repeating circular forms and rhythm go hand in hand. This is an interesting photograph of interesting (circular) equipment;
And then the images posted only in this current MSA thread:
6) peter k’s “Roots of Rhythm”
An example of form where there aren’t repeating identical shapes, but instead a more long term, organic approach to complementary shapes. Nicely photographed too;
7) mooseontheloose’s “Laundry”
It has been a long time since I had to rely on shared public laundry facilities, but seeing this photo brought me immediately back to the memory of rhythmic repeating shapes and patterns of light, along with the rhythm of the sounds of the machines as they roll and rumble in their appointed tasks. In this case the image tone and even the signage and the chairs contribute to the visual rhythms. In my case, the parts of the image that identify it as clearly being from Japan add an air of the exotic, although I expect that if I were living in Japan this would appear less exotic and more mundane.
8) Bertus’ “Drost-Rhythms”
This is a really strong submission - the concept of an image within an image provides a really interesting take on the subject of rhythm. The image we see of the print indicates as well to me that the print itself has its own sort of tonal rhythm. I think, unfortunately that it may not comply with the current MSA rules, due to use of a digital internegative. We may need to re-visit that issue for future assignments;
9) awty’s “Keeping Rhythm”
When I first saw the thumbnail of this image, I didn’t think a lot of it. But when I look at the larger version, it seems quite compelling. The subject pictured - drums and rhythm guitar in action - is perfectly on point for the theme. And the sense of rhythmic movement and energy combines with the depths of the shadows and the brilliance and blur of the highlights to cause me to look at the result over and over.
So which one to choose?
The submissions from NedL, mooseontheloose and awty are very compelling, as well as PhxMedFormatPhotog’s "We'll Cross That Bridge When We Get There". Bertus’ submission would have also made this list, if I didn’t (unfortunately) think it necessary to disqualify it due to the involvement of a digital negative.
It is a tough task, but I’ve decided on my choice.
I’ve chosen PhxMedFormatPhotog’s "We'll Cross That Bridge When We Get There" as best reflecting this theme, which means that he will be the one who gets to choose the next MSA theme - for March and April 2018 - and he will also get to choose the next “winner”.
I see that March is his birthday month. So I’ll say congratulations, and Happy Birthday!
Here is the winning image:
https://www.photrio.com/forum/media/msa-rhythm-well-cross-that-bridge-when-we-get-there.56686/