Back when I first heard about Pixish — “a place where people who want images and people who make images can easily find each other and collaborate on creative projects together” — I set up an account and posted an assignment. I’ve been very lucky to feature some great artists over the past four issues of Kaleidotrope — from the covers by Remi Treuer and Jim Cleaveland, to interior artwork by a long list of talented people — but I’m always on the lookout for work that I think will complement the stories and poems in each issue.
Still, I posted my assignment pretty much as a lark. So much of a lark that I promptly forgot all about it. I certainly wasn’t expecting anyone to take it seriously.
And yet I find, upon visiting the website again, that there are now close to 50 submissions. If you’d like, I think you can go in and vote on them — although I’m not sure how much, if at all, that will play into my decision-making. Some of the submissions are very good, although obviously even some of those will not work well with the realities of Kaleidotrope‘s printing (black and white, photocopied). I’m going to need to take a closer look at all of them.
Officially, the assignment closes on August 1, but I think I may try posting another one as soon as that’s done.
This time, I just need to remember it.
Lots of great work there. But obviously most of them didn’t read your guidelines very closely. Or else they’re taking a gamble you might like something a little (or a lot) outside what you requested.
Anyway, my vote goes for any of the Amy Law pieces, especially “The Reader.”
I agree with Eric; I think that most of these people just submitted things they already had laying around, rather than try to make something specifically for Kaleidotrope.
>I posted my assignment pretty much as a lark.
>So much of a lark that I promptly forgot all about it.
>I certainly wasn’t expecting anyone to take it seriously.
Hmmm.. well, as a contributor to Pixish I’d say that seems to be the general attitude. As a photographer I do have a very large collection of images of a multitude of subjects that I use on a regular basis, but if an assignment demands something a bit different then I’ll shoot it specially: after all, that’s part of the fun!
What *seriously* bugs me is when the people that post assignments apparently “forget” about them, and several months later they’re still closed and not judged. This is even the “just for fun” ones, and although I’m not intending to make any serious money from a site like Pixish, I at least try to adopt a professional attitude as a contributor, and the least I’d expect is for my “client” to do the same!
I’m offering very little money and maybe less exposure, but don’t worry: I will be in touch with the artists on this assignment after the August 1 deadline.