Are Photographic competitions disheartening ?
I do, on the whole, find photographic competitions most disheartening. Whenever you get the rejection email or letter a little bit of confidence ebbs away. I become subdued and a bit saddened whenever I fail to get shortlisted and its happened countless times. It makes me wonder way we go in for them ? Why do I keep putting myself though this ? Obviously the kudos and honour of selection, let alone the enhancement of your career, can sometimes outweigh the negativity but lately the negative feelings are deterring me from entering too many competitions.
You can probably tell I’ve just received such an email ! I’m disappointed that my selection for the Peaches and Cream IV competition run by the excellent company Millennium Images haven’t been selected but I’m mindful that the images they normally choose are excellent. My images are below and were based on a poem by Raymond Carver called ” The Cobweb “. I’m really looking forward to the exhibited images and I already know that the standard will be incredibly high.
I’ve had the honour of being a judge on a prestigious worldwide competition and it’s an incredibly hard task to whittle down 2000+ images to just 10 ! Personal choice plays a big part in the selection obviously and you try and be fair to everyone but you still know that 1990+ photographers are going to feel like I do today.
I often find that the costs of entering photographic competitions are a big deterrent especially when the odds are stacked against you. Take for instance the Taylor Wessing Portrait prize. In 2013 they had 5,410 images entered from 2,435 photographers. From the 5,410 images only 60 were selected for the final exhibition. The cost per entry was £ 26.00 per picture. That’s a lot of disappointed photographers. I have to admit again though that the Taylor Wessing prize does champion great photography and the show was visited by over 64,000 people. Great publicity if you can get it.
I’m still unsure if the competition route is an effective way of promoting your imagery or if it is a route to despair and disenchantment. Positives and negatives, if you pardon the pun.
Come tomorrow, today’s disappointment will be consigned to history and I’ll pick up my bottom lip and keep taking the images I love. I enjoy what I do and I just love photography.
fotogig 
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