Should you pay to enter competitions?
Written by David WhiteWhat’s wrong with these images? Nothing. What they represent here is many failed entries and hundreds of lost pounds spent entering into the Taylor Wessing award. All the images are by the talented photographer Ben Roberts. I asked Ben if he would write a bit about competitions and their worth, specifically after I read something he had written to the EPUK list ( you are a member, aren’t you?). I want to say thankyou to Ben for taking the time to write this comprehensive post and for having the balls to let us look at his ‘unsuccesful’ images, which I really enjoyed looking at whilst putting this together.
Ben writes:
Earlier this week I responded to an email on the private EPUK lists. The original poster was asking for opinions on whether or not he should enter the Taylor Wessing Portrait Awards. The topic evolved into a brief but interesting discussion, and a little while later David got in touch with me to see if I would be up for distilling some of my thoughts on photography competitions into a blog post for Duckrabbit. So here goes…
My career in photography is relatively short; 7 years when you take into account a couple of years studying. However during that time I’ve been pretty active in entering competitions. The Taylor Wessing award (it was the Schweppes when I was a student) is a competition that I have entered religiously since being a first year photography student, but this year I’ve decided to give it a miss. There’s a number of reasons for this…
1. When I add up the money I’ve spent from several consecutive years (unsuccessfully!) entering this competition, it comes to well over £500. This is taking into consideration printing, delivery and entry fees. When I think about what I could have done with that money instead, I feel a little queasy. I could have done some actual business promotion, I could have spent a week abroad photographing a project, heck, I could even have just given £100 to charity every year.
2. Sometimes, the Taylor Wessing Award feels like a bit of a lottery. Each year, it feels to me like 75% of the images chosen are of a really high quality, a few (15-20%) are kind of so-so, and then a couple (5%?) leave me clueless. Now this isn’t sour grapes – I can’t recall ever having a problem with the winning images, which are consistently inspiring. I think that over the years though this minor issue has taken the polish off the exhibition for me slightly – in that I’ll walk away remembering that poor image and not some of the better ones. Hang on, maybe that is sour grapes?!
3. A better reason to not enter is more personal and something that readers of this blog may feel some affinity with. As a photographer I concentrate my energy on producing extended bodies of work; I’ve had way more success in competitions that take this into account. The Taylor Wessing Award is in essence a single image competition. You could enter 6 images from a series, but at £23 per image entry plus printing fees, for many of use this just isn’t realistic.
4. To a certain extent I’m rebelling against the ‘pay to play’ ethos that has become the norm for photography competitions. While I can understand that some competitions need to bring in a certain amount of revenue to cover expenses, there seems to be an increase in the number of competitions out there that are purely money making machines. I’ve seen a figure of 6000 photographs entered for last years awards – at £23 a pop that’s potentially £138000 in entry revenue; add to that 250,000 visitors paying £1 entry and Taylor Wessing’s sponsorship, and you’ve got a hell of a lot of money. I’d be interested to see how it all gets spent.
In point #4, I specified that I’m rebelling against ‘pay to play’ to a ‘certain extent’. To clarify, I’m not advocating that you shouldn’t enter any competitions. It’s more that you should pick and choose your competitions with care. In the first 3 years of my photographic career, I entered plenty of competitions; I guess I was after ‘exposure’, ‘fame’ or ‘recognition’. I’ve been fortunate enough to win a couple of high profile competitions, yet while the short term exposure and personal satisfaction was great, in the long term nothing really changed; I still hard to work my ass off to get commissions and make a living, and the main thing that has kept me making photographs is the enjoyment that I get from actually being out there and doing it.Over the last two years I have become a lot more selective about which competitions I enter. Generally I’ll enter 2-3 each year, and I’ll make sure that they not only suit my style of work, but have negligible or zero entry fees. Often the dividends aren’t cash prizes, but fully funded exhibitions and workshops. This won’t be attractive for everyone, but importantly it’s right for me.
Here’s a few good competitions for photographers in the early stages of their careers- Magenta ‘Flash Forward’ Awards – A charitable arts publishing house based in Toronta, each year the Magenta Foundation runs a competition for photographers under the age of 35 based in the UK, Canada and USA. While this is pretty shitty if you’re 36 and live in France, if you do fit their requirements then for £21 you can enter a series of 10 photographs to be considered for a fully funded book and exhibition. Over 100 people are chosen each year.
– PDN 30 New and Emerging Photographers – Each year, Photo District News select 30 photographers from around the globe who are making interesting work and are potential prospects for the future. There are no entry fees, but candidates are nominated by industry professionals. So how are you going to get nominated? Well you might want to start by networking with some of these people…
Magnum/Burn Magazine Emerging Photographers Fund -Run annually via David Alan Harvey’s ‘Burn Magazine’, the Emerging Photographers Fund awards a substantial bursary of $15,000 to a photographer to continue a work in progress. The deadline for this years competition is 15th May! So hurry up ..
There’s loads of other worthy competitions out there; just remember that it’s often time consuming to put together your submission, so make sure that you’re not wasting your time before putting in the effort. Check all of the entrance guidelines (age, nationality, experience), and do some research to see the work of previous winners. If you specialise in beautiful studio lit portraits and every past winner has been a war photographer, you might want to consider entering a different contest…Finally it’s worth remembering that two of the world’s most prestigious competitions, World Press Photo and the Sony World Photography Awards, are both free to enter – and if you get shortlisted for the Sony WPA, then you might even get to walk up a red carpet!
To see more of Ben’s work, hop over here.
Discussion (11 Comments)
Fair points all round.
However, I think the inverse is also worth considering.
There are lots of competitions out there where you pay to play, and can enter one of dozens of categories. In effect a combination of a steep entry fees vs these dozens of categories out there to enter means your competing against very few people. (i.e. things like the IPA award) the amount of average photography in there is staggering and completely devalues the often excellent overall winners
The thing that sets apart TWA from these ‘internet’ pay to plays is your get your photos in the NPG! (Albeit fairly briefly). If its a lottery thats a much better prize, all be it with some foggy odds.
Great Post. THANKS BEN.
Was doing the same maths recently. There needs to be a call for transparency from for- and non-profit orgs running these things.
23 freakin’ pounds a pop!!!
I somewhat, sorta, kinda disagree or have a different thought about what to look for before entering a comp. I wouldn’t necessarily look at previous year winner’s because most competitions change the jurors from year to year.
I predominantly… look at the Jurors and where and what field of photography they come from. I find a lot of competitions tend to lean more towards editors from Magazines and that does not favor well for photographers like myself that are more surreal/narrative and less documentary/deadpan.
Remember also that it’s a majority vote or total tally type winner, so if there are 4 jurors that seem to gravitate towards your style, you still might be out of luck if the other 6 jurors don’t.
my 2¢
Ben, it was a great article. I have same feelings about pay and enter competitions.
What especially bothers me is that the TWA at NPG most of the time looks and feels like a one big gallery of Guardian shoot. The editorial judges are only selecting the type of images that the have published in the past and there is lack of indepth analysis as to why an image wins. Its a very tame and reserved look at the art of portraiture by one of our great institions. I have also decided not to apply this year and most likely going forward.
Great post. You said exactly what I have been thinking recently. These competitions offer potential exposure, but you’re right it does feel like a lottery. We pay them money so that we can simply have a hope of being considered… So if we are not considered what do we get for our money? Nothing at all.
Famous photojournalists run workshops for aspiring photojournalists that cost thousands of $$ for a week, or hundreds of $ for a few hours. I may be just having a bad day, but I can’t help but feel that the industry is feeding off it’s own young. Are some of the successful taking advantage of the aspiring to keep themselves in business? Or am I just bitter and twisted, beaten down by my own dashed hopes…probably.
Food for thought at least.
Jarrod,
I’m really sorry you are feeling beaten down Please keep going.
There are some ‘name’ photogs who are very good teachers. Others who are terrible. People should do research before they go on workshop. Afterall no-one is forcing them to sign up.
Thanks Duck. You’re right, nobody is forced and to go on a workshop and I’m sure many of them are excellent. I was just having a bad day. Your one kind sentence was actually a great pick-me-up. Thanks for the encouragement.
The whole competition ‘system’ in relation to photography has been thoroughly abused by many organizers I think.
From a certain perspective you can see why there might be an argument for nominal entry charge per image – to stop serial entries; cover basic costs (or portion of), etc. What you now have though is institutions, organisations, etc. seeing competitions as a way to actually make money.
There a few notable exceptions of course(Environmental Photographer of the Year springs to mind, which is free) but most of the comps are merely trying to jump on the photography gravy train, shafting the poor photographers who had to make all the effort to take the images in the first place. They also drive a wedge between the haves and the have nots – those who can afford to enter when there’s little chance of winning, and those who can’t (another example of photographic elitism).
I like the NPG prize – good, easily digestible stuff for the most part – but the 23 quid entry per image is a monumental piss take. Appreciate the NPG are probably strapped for cash like most galleries, but they really need to be a bit tougher with their corporate sponsorship negotiations to cover the costs.
Hi Craig,
I don’t think the comps shaft photographers. Don’t they shaft themselves if they decide to enter. Its the photographers that give these comps value.
I do think you make a really good point about elitism. Then you get stuff like the World Press Multimedia comp, that you couldn’t even enter.