It's hard to say what makes someone stop and gaze at a photography exhibit.
"It's different things, I don't know — different angles, something that's not my normal point of view," Chrystal Kay said Sunday at a closing reception for the second "Short Exposure" exhibit.
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Justin Baker/News-Journal Photo | Vicki and Pat Wolfe look at the ?Short Exposure? exhibit Sunday at Longview Museum of Fine Art.
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Hosted by the Longview Museum of Fine Arts, the open-invitation exhibit drew 37 local photographers with 200 images from around the world. The inaugural "Short Exposure" show this past year attracted 13 photographers.
"Every day we've had excellent crowds," photographer and event organizer John Wrather said. "People like to look at photographs, and we got such a variety. There's no set theme. It's literally what the photographers are proud of and want to hang."
Fellow organizer Don Auderer said exhibit entrants ranged from high school age to 85 years old.
Wrather and Auderer said photography gained new practitioners with the arrival of digital cameras. Much of the exhibits in the six-day exhibit was digital.
"You go anywhere, and you see people walking around with a digital camera," Wrather said. "And they're shooting pictures. And they're enjoying it, and that's what it's all about."
He added the basics haven't changed with the new technology.
"Exposure, contrast, cropping — it's still there, and it will always be there," Wrather said.
Visitor Sandra Alderman of Temple said it's the photographer's imagination splashed on the print that makes her stop to gaze.
"I'm trying to imaging what the artist feels," she said, noting a shot by Kay's husband, John, of a boy he encountered in a Chinese village. "I'm trying to imagine what they are going through in their life and just trying to put myself in their place."
The organizers focused this year on letting entrants exhibit any subject. The men envision a more formal, judged show, perhaps in early 2011 to allow time to organize the competition.
"We need to get the word out more and make a few tweaks," Wrather said. "The museum's been very supportive of having this exhibit. And we just want it to get bigger."
