Mundane: The Chair’s Challenge 2025/6
- Andrew Crawford
- Sep 5, 2025
- 2 min read
Photographs (c) Andrew P Crawford
The photographer Jim Richardson famously said:
“If you want to be a better photographer, stand in front of more interesting stuff.”
But what did he mean by “interesting stuff”? Did he mean far-off lands, or captivating views or different cultures? Maybe, but maybe he also meant “stuff” not widely seen, or things photographed to add new meaning or understanding. Despite working for National Geographic, some of his better known work is of ordinary life in his home state – Kansas – in his book High School USA and his documentary photography of the small town of Cuba.
This season the Club’s Chair’s challenge takes inspiration from Elliott Erwitt, another photographer of ordinary life, who said
“To me, photography is an art of observation. It's about finding something interesting in an ordinary place”.
I’m narrowing that further by asking you to find the unnoticed and overlooked within the walls of your home. It is an exercise in seeing, in finding something interesting where you might not normally look.
The Challenge: Photograph something that ordinarily might go unnoticed and overlooked but which, when framed in your viewfinder, becomes interesting. The subject should be in your home, in its usual position and lit with natural/ambient light – so no flash or studio set-ups.
What’s ordinarily unnoticed in your home is unlikely to be a person, prized possession or a window with its view. One approach might be to watch how light and shadow change through the day and see what’s brought to life – that’s particularly noticeable in Debby Besford’s series “Family home”. Or to help you see what you normally overlook, you might think about how your world looks from unusual angles - under your bed or the top of your wardrobe, from the inside of your fridge, or what does the mirror see when you’re not looking. There is a maximum of two entries each, projected, if there are more entries than I can cope with then only your first entry (the one first in your list in PhotoEntry) will be considered. Entries to be submitted via PhotoEntry by Wednesday 6th May 2026 for judging at the AGM on the 13th.
