Non-Traditional Answers Part I: Competitions
This is the first in a short series of articles prompted by recent interesting email exchanges. Over the past few weeks, several people contacted me for advice on various topics and I felt that some of the discussion may be of interest to a wider audience.
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A talented young photographer recently asked me about ways to promote and market their work and particularly about the value of entering competitions. I think two of my answers were not quite what they expected: that I myself am no marketing guru and rely largely on word of mouth to sell my work (best kind of publicity but also the hardest and slowest to establish,) and that I myself have only ever entered one formal competition and immediately regretted having done so.
Let me start by pointing out the sad state of photo competitions these days: the vast majority of them require entrants to give up some degree of legal rights to the submitted work, whether they win or not. This shameful practice, referred to as a “rights grab”, is almost par for the course for all but very few well respected competitions. While it is reasonable to ask for the rights to publish winning entries in contexts relevant to the competition (e.g. on the sponsors’ web site, in related promotional material, a winner showcase etc.) and as a precondition for winning prizes, it is NOT reasonable to ask the photographer to give up rights in perpetuity, for any use, without limit, by simply submitting their work for consideration. My advice to anyone planning to participate in any competition is to always read the terms and fine print with an eye towards rights grab language and if it is there, paraphrasing on the Nike adage: just DON’T do it!
This leaves just a handful of competitions worth entering and indeed some of them do have the power to launch careers, to make household names, and to market work to prestigious buyers. Still, I personally don’t do it. Why, you ask? Well, let me jump on this here soapbox…
In my mind the very concept of art is inherently incompatible with competition. Art represents the sensibilities of the artist, their personal taste, their connection with the subject, and as the case may be: their genius. There is never a guarantee that these will resonate with the public, or with a small group of judges from varying backgrounds and with their own sensibilities which may be wholly different from those of the artist. In other words: winning or losing by the judgment of others is meaningless when it comes to the inherent value of art. Indeed much of what we today consider great art was unpopular and unappreciated in its day and may well have died on the vine had the artist paid any heed to popular opinion, let alone the subjective opinions of a few.
Certainly there are those who thrive on the very concept of competition and see value in attaining a winning position, irrespective of anything else. I just don’t happen to be one of these people.
Some common myths regarding art and competition:
Competitions will NOT tell you how you measure up to others. Competitions are won on the opinions and preferences of a handful of people. At most you can hope to know how you measure up in their individual minds, for what it’s worth. Also ask yourself who it is you really want to measure up to (if anyone!) and the chances of them having entered the same contest.
Competitions will NOT help you define your personal style. By definition, the purpose of the contest is to have your work judged by others who very likely have no idea about who you are, where your art comes from, or why you personally find it meaningful.
Competitions will NOT provide you with objective advice or ideas for improving your work. If anything, it will either tell you how to make your work more compatible with the fashion of the time, or you’ll end up hearing tired old adages that are of questionable value to a true artist/individualist.
So, if you’re the competitive type – by all means enter your work into those few contests that may truly benefit your resume. Otherwise, take a back seat and enjoy the show. I take great pleasure in reviewing competition entries and judging them for myself. More often than not, my own favorites are not the ones that end up being picked by the judges. And that’s OK.
As it pertains to my own work, I made the decision to forfeit the chance for an “award winning” designation in favor of eliminating the temptation to alter my work in order to appease any particular judge.
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In the next installment of “Non-Traditional Answers” I’ll review my thoughts on print pricing and limiting editions. Stay tuned.
Category: Rants and Raves, Thoughts and Musings
Your statement In my mind the very concept of art is inherently incompatible with competition clearly expresses a topic I was thinking of for a while. We are trained to focus on success and use competition to measure it. All we get from this is dependency on the judgment of others. Thinking that – beeing yourself is what distinguishes art from junk. In this sense I would like to paraphrase your statement as In my mind the very concept of beeing yourself is inherently incompatible with competition.
Maybe whatever you do becomes art if it is an expression of you beeing yourself.
Great thoughts, Guy. I enter only a few competitions each year, like the prestigious BBC, Nature’s Best, ICPA, & NWF. Not every photographer that I admire enters, but enough of them do that I always consider it an honor to have my work considered to be at the same level. The judging is, of course, not impartial, as every judge brings their own biases. I think that it has helped reinforce my reputation over the years, but I have seen very little immediate financial return. Certainly, my clients who have joined my photo tours appreciate my accomplishments. No matter how you feel about them, no competition is going to transform your photography into a solid business.
Michael, in my mind there’s no “maybe” about it. Your last sentence echoes my thoughts very well. Thank you for posting!
Guy, you articulated some of my conflicted thoughts very clearly about art and competition. I appreciate your position but also your acceptance of others who may be stimulated and energized by competition. I’ve entered a few competitions, but always felt that in doing so I was revealing a weakness and lack of self-confidence as much as anything else.
From my limited time as a photo judge in the regional photo clubs here in the bay area I will say that when a contest has a panel of judges you end up with a decision that is a compromise. Seldom is the winning selections the best photo that one person would select… rather the photos chosen are those that all could agree would be worthy as a winner. Food for thought the next time you evaluate how a contest is judged.
Jim, I’m not sure that it addresses my own reasons above. When it comes to photo clubs, competition is often used to stimulate learning and discussion opportunities which can be invaluable to newcomers or to satisfy the social aspect of the club. Still, there comes a time in every artist’s growth when they need to set aside the opinions and teachings of others and carve their own path. At that point they should silence all judgment other than their own if they have any hope for greatness.
I couldn’t agree more. I do enter some competitions, as there are some good ones out there, but it is just a few, mainly for the reasons you mentioned.
Have Fun,
Jeff
Guy: I make NO bones about it. Competitions do nothing for me other than get my work in front of people and audiences who I might not otherwise reach. Sales are sometimes the result as well. I don’t enter comps for any other reason, and I don’t enter any competition that is not a good fit for my work. I might suggest that this is the ONLY worthy reason to enter.
I have only entered about three competitions and one of them recently because the judge and sponsor was a nature photography gallery owner that I’d like to have my work displayed in.
I agree. Totally. I’ve never entered a competition, and likely never will. I’ve never seen photography as a competitive sport. I photograph for myself, not a panel of judges.
While I think entering/winning competitions can have positive effects such as exposure or sales, I think that many are more popularity contests than anything else. Winning a competition is about as important to me as my page views: not at all. I just care that I’m producing something I’m happy with.
I have occasionally considered entering some local competitions but it is for the exact reasons you describe above that I have never done so. Most seem to be there for the rights grab rather than the competition itself…
Great article Guy! You’ve hit the nail on the head with every aspect of entering a juried contest. Most importantly is your point 1) regarding image rights, but also the fact that it’s the opinion of just a few people that don’t care about your background and why you create the images. In addition most contest have judges with a very narrow view of what is and what isn’t “art” or a fine image.
I have been thinking about these things in a while and this post is timely read for me. Perfect matches / answers my questions!
Good post, Guy. I’ve never entered any competitions. While I cannot rule out the possibility that I might enter the right one at some point, I think that that many of your points are right on.
I think that winning certain contests could indicate that your work has reached a “certain level,” but it most certainly does not guarantee (at least not in most cases) that it is actually “better” than the work of those who might not have won. The flip side of this is that your work might not win but still might be “better” than the work that does win. I suppose that winning the right context is a gift that one might accept, but I think that it would also be important to keep a certain humility about the whole thing.
Regarding your point about contest terms, there are actually typically two problems. As you wrote, the contest organizers almost always acquire a permanent, cost-free, license to use the work of ALL WHO ENTER (not just the winners), and often the rights also extend to the affiliates of the contest sponsors – which could include agencies, designers, even co-sponsors. This is, frankly, outrageous. I would never enter such a contest. But there is a second, and possibly more dangerous problem. These contests typically also require that entrants (again, not just winners) agree to accept any and all legal liability for the use of their entered photographs… over which the entrants no longer have any control! It doesn’t take a lot of thought to see how this could go terribly wrong in very many ways.
I’ve pointed this out to several contest sponsors. Typical responses include “but we would never do that!” OK, then rewrite the contest terms so that they don’t permit you to do the thing you say you would not do. Another response is terrible anger and personal attacks on the photographer who points these things out. I’ve experienced this from more than one well-known national organization that would surprise you if I named them, and from a well-known photo blogger whose attach included emails from himself and an associate.
I think we do photography and photographers a favor by pointing out both the problems with so many of these contests… and those contests that are fair to photographers and may perhaps be worth entering.
Take care,
Dan
Hi Guy,
I agree with some of what you say. Most photo competitions these days are rights grabs as you say. Avoid them like the plague. Like Jon, I have entered the ICP, BBC and Nature’s Best competitions, which I consider worthwhile. I also agree with each of your statements labelled common myths.
The idea that I have the most problem is this – “the very concept of art is inherently incompatible with competition.” Before I took up photography, my main artistic outlet was as a classical musician. In my opinion, competitions had a massive impact on my growth as a musician. The preparation involved, inspiration to delve into new repertoire, development of technique, learning to allow myself to take an individual approach to interpretation, exposure to the performances of other musicians and most importantly the opportunity to get used to the rigours of a live performance. If I had been left to my own devices, plodding through the examination system I’m sure that my growth as a musician would have been severely stunted.
As for photography competitions, they have allowed my work to be much more widely exposed, including the US and Europe, an audience that as an Australian would be difficult to reach otherwise. It is all well and good to say that as long as we shoot for ourselves, everything is OK ; however unless we merely intend to keep our photos in a drawer by the bedside, we all make photographs for people to see. Competitions have the potential to let our photography reach a wider audience. I don’t believe that most contestants shoot images to appease judges. When I’m out photographing my thoughts are not of shooting things in a certain way that will make it a ‘winner’. I just do my own thing and when a contest rolls around, have a look in my portfolio for any images that I think will appeal.
As for the best photo not winning, who really cares? What should a winning photo look like? Who knows? I suspect most contestants will have the common sense to know that these things are very subjective, just shrug their shoulders and move on. Indeed to go back to my musical analogy, brilliant careers have been kickstarted by the fact that certain performers FAILED to win a particular competition.
Warm regards,
Kah Kit
Good post. I will enter a contest if there is a juror I want to get my work in front of, and the styles or subjects are not too far out of line with the work I do. A great many of the art-type photo contests these days are focusing on people in a journalistic style – which is about as far from what I do as you can get. Since most of these contests also have a fee to enter I could just as easily dispose of my money in the fire pit.
Look forward to your next post about pricing and limited editions!
Thoughts from a photo contest judge.. . . .
I judge a National Park service photography contest along with another very well known nature magazine editor. When we judge we are not giving high points to the same exact images, this helps create more of an average score for participants. Everyone has their own individual opinions of who should of won and sometimes it is almost political. Even winners might have wanted another image they entered to win.
After the points are added and averaged we have our winners in each specific category NPS does not have any rights to the images besides displaying the actual prints. NPS will ask for rights if they are interested in them. NPS might also ask for rights to other images that did not win.
All judges in contests are not the same. If you have the chance to see the names of judges you can look up their work and see what they like but it still does not mean they will be voting high on work that resembles their own. If the work of the judges highly varies from yours it might be discouraging to enter a contest. You might take into consideration the fees involved at this point and if it’s not much to lose or nothing at all you might go ahead and take the risk of not winning.
How many photographers have had the “I should of won” attitude? Plenty, it is egotistical but that pushes most photographers into competitions. An ego will put you in or keep you out.
Beneficially winners of contests can be connected with new people that might help them promote their photography to a higher level that was not available to the photographer before. Each contest is different and yes the fine print needs to be read because not all contests are the same. It would probably be better to create a list of contests that steal image rights then to discourage people from entering contests.
Some contests will provide a critiquing session afterwards, giving the photographers an idea of what they could of made an adjustment on. How many times have we went back to an image after we thought we were finished with it? If you ask me I would say too many times.
Some contests will look for personal style and not pick cliche images. Most contest winning images will be used for advertising and new work, new style and new scenery is hard to not be noticed. That expresses individuality.
Some contests will hurt a photographer’s feelings and even generate some decision making on going on with competing or not. The world is an unfair place and I have had my feelings hurt enough to where I do not care if I win or lose. It is the kick to our own ass that keeps us going!
Not that I’m all that concerned about winning Audubon’s contest, but when I checked it out last night I saw that the amateur prize was some kind of eco/photo tour in South America. Air travel, etc. not included. So if you win, you have to pay taxes on a $3,000 prize, plus cover your airfare, etc., and you have to use it within a year.
How about not entering a contest because you’re afraid you might win?
Nice thoughts Guy and, in my mind, right on. I’ve never entered a competition (other than the grind of submissions for publications) and have no intention of ever doing so.
Here is a link to the website of some folks who have made this topic a special focus: http://www.pro-imaging.org/content/view/177/156/
Dan
Hi Guy, I have just discovered your blog and the many beautifully written articles it contains. I am a great fan of your photography but I did not realize what a good writer you are. Thank you so much for the opportunity to engage with you here. My take on the competition issue is that there are two sides to it that are determined by one’s motivation. If the motivation is economic gain, then I think we probably should enter competitions and deal with the many aggravations that exist when we engage others in our work. If the motivation is not economic, if it is merely the joy of producing beautiful work, then the competition matters little. I know that in my own experience, what I consider to be my best images are not typically the ones that win competitions. And I agree with you entirely that if one really is an artist, it should matter not at all whether the competition is won or lost. Thanks again for your informative and inspiring blog. Best, Jeremy
Guy, I think you said it all with this comment – “At that point they should silence all judgment other than their own if they have any hope for greatness.” I think it also applies to posting work on photography sites for critique. There comes a time when we have to have confidence in our work and creative ideas so that they fulfill our own vision and not that of everyone else.
Sharon