Contests: The love and hate relationship.
Posted by Tim Gruber | Filed under career, contests
With the contest season slowly coming to a close I enjoyed a recent post by Trent Nelson on contests in response to a student threatening to burn his photos. A panel of contest judges deemed the young photographer and all the entries in the Young Scottish Photographer of the Year category to be unworthy of the honor.
Apparently the young photographer was misquoted and never threatened to burn his photos, rather he said he’d be burning bridges by speaking out.
What fun is that? Burn those suckers. (Alright I didn’t major in PR so I’m not sure if that’s the best move.)
After finishing up my latest contest entry last night I had the same thoughts linger in my head that always appear after I enter a contest:
Why do I do this? What good is this for? If I’m doing this to give a voice to my subjects why bother? Why expose myself to the torture of losing?
The reality remains though — I’m new to the business and don’t have much of a career(if you can call it that) in this field I love. A contest helps bring credibility to my work.
We all know our field is extremely competitive and talent flows from all corners. Contests are a way to give yourself an edge. In many ways it’s like building a brand. Your name and your work are your brand. It’s your passion and you want validation that your hard work means something to your peers.
This recent blog post on Innovation in College Media touches on the idea of branding yourself in hopes of landing a job:
You might think you’re too young in your career to build a brand. Wrong. You need to start developing it now. Literally, your employer is purchasing your skills over someone else. You have to sell that idea to them. This requires you to think in marketing and advertising mode.
Contests are also a chance to reflect on the year. What worked? What didn’t? Did I meet the goals I set out for myself? It’s a chance to see how many bad photos I took(a lot) and serves as a reminder that there’s always more that can be done.
It’s a wonderful way to gauge your growth against not only yourself, but your peers.
What do we know for certain about contests?
As Melissa states:
They are such a double-edged sword. You win: You feel validated. Your bosses and publications are happy. Your resume gets padded with a few extra lines. You lose: You take it personally. You feel like your best is not good enough. Your ego get deflated.
Love ‘em or hate ‘em they’re a part of our business.
Trent says it best:
To all of you young photographers looking to be the next big thing: Invest your emotion into your work, not into contest wins. Contests are not science. The results are subjective and unpredictable. If you work hard and stay focused on your art, then recognition will come.
I came home to this last year on the floor in my house and it
served as a nice reminder that there’s more to life than contests.
Thanks guys.
Tags: brand, contests, photojournalism, selfpromo
