"Prairie Dock Dots" © Hank Erdmann

The Morton Arboretum, DuPage County, Illinois.

Blog #12 Photo Contests and Exhibitions

November 20, 2013

This blog will focus on the subject of Photo Contests and Exhibitions and the value and

pitfalls of such events.

Thanks again for your comments and thoughts concerning seasonal shopping. I might

have hit a nerve with a few folks as I had a few drop the newsletter, but by far the

majority agrees, spending time outside with friends and family is far better than another

tie or bottle of perfume we don't need or want. Or Reindeer antlers for your car!!!

Food for Thought:

"Shall I not have intelligence with the earth? Am I not partly leaves and vegetable

mould myself " - Henry David Thoreau

"The idea of wilderness needs no defense. It only needs more defenders."

- Edward Abbey

"Check the Fine Print!"...

Almost daily I get an email promoting some photo contest or exhibition, a myriad of places or events and

entities that want me to send them my images and money in exchange for the chance of POTENTIAL fame

and fortune. Hmmmmmmmmm...remember the phrase "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is"?

Now I certainly don't wish to paint all contests and exhibitions with the same brush, especially a soiled

one as many such contests and exhibitions are totally above board, but even so many legit events may

profess to offer more than they actually do, at least in realistic chances of your image placing well in the

event. So just what are the odds of gaining that high dollar prize and the fame and notoriety that makes

your photographic career?

As with most things do your homework, a little research and time spent will pay dividends or at least save

you some entrance fees. The email and or advertisement for contests and exhibitions will usually tell you

up front where your images will be seen and what the prizes are should you win, such details are usually

selling points for the event.

Usually if you really want to know what odds you are up against you'll have to backtrack from the ad to

the organizer's website. To say the least, CHECK THE FINE PRINT! I always try and determine the number

of images entered in past years or at least the number of submissions, and at the very least an average of

images submitted over the past few years. Even a number of images expected for the contest will give you

some idea of the competition. I received an email this past summer for a new photo context and

exhibition that I had not solicited myself (which in itself can be a red flag sometimes) but it looked

interesting and the entry fee was very reasonable being under $50.

"St Louis Canyon Winter" © Hank Erdmann Starved Rock State Park, St Louis Canyon, LaSalle County, Illinois.

So I did my research and found the sponsoring organization. The competition was not a fund raiser for the

organization (many are and that is fine), but it was obviously a commercial operation (again not

necessarily a deal breaker). I could not find any information on the average or past numbers of images

they had in the past or expected for the coming event, but they did have a "want more info" email

address so I sent off an inquiry as to the numbers and where the images would be show or promoted, etc.

I waited...and waited and ten days later I sent off a second email repeating the request and a note that I

would not enter without the requested info, all in a very nice manner. About two weeks later still without

a reply to my email, I received yet another email ad to join their little contest which I promptly spammed.

There is no excuse for any person or entity running a competition or exhibition not to answer such

questions. If they won't there likely is a very good reason. It could be they are just incompetent and do

you really want to be involved in that situation? More likely they don't want you to know that your image

or images are up against thousands or tens of thousands or even in a few cases hundreds of thousands of

images. Bad odds methinks! When we run the Open Lens exhibition at Gallery 7, we not only don't hide

such info (it's right in the prospectus) we think it's a sales point for the event. In the past four years we've

had a low of just under 600 images to just over 1000 submitted to the jurying. Even at the highest

submission level, with a minimum number of 50 images to be selected (and a high of 68 one year), one

stands a one in twenty chance of having an image selected. Those are better odds than any contest I know

of. While last year was a down year for sales, we only sold a couple pieces, the prior year sold eight pieces

out of 52 images on display. Odds again far better than most shows. This is the kind of information I

expect to be published or at least released upon request, and if I can't get that information, I will not

enter the event.

"Winter Forest, Peninsula State Park" © Hank Erdmann

Door County, Wisconsin.

As far as fund raisers and commercial ownership is concerned I could care less. As long as it is above

board and the organizer's are fully open about who's running it and who's benefiting from it, I don't care

as long as their purposes are honest. Gallery 7's Open Lens is their annual fund raiser which helps keep

the gallery running and open. Even if a commercial entity runs such events to make money, that's fine as

long as they are providing rewards and exposure for the artists supporting the event. There are however

many, many sponsors whose goals are not just to run a contest, it is to collect and own your images with

very little or no compensation at all.

Again, check the fine print! There is a stock agency running a series of themed photo contests in which

your "prize" if selected is representation by the sponsoring agency with assertions that you 'll be making

thousands of dollars from image sales (all one has to do to find out who that agency is, is to check the fine

print!). But if you read the fine print, you'll realize that just by submitting images to the contest, you are

giving up the rights to your images and that they could be selected for that agency's use without

compensation specified or promised in any manner. This same agency has a reputation in the stock

photography business of selling image use and not paying the photographers. So be careful who and

where you send your images!

"Mississippi River Winter" © Hank Erdmann Pikes Peak State Park, Clayton County, Iowa.

Early this fall a past student emailed me about a website that features Door County and images of one of

my favorite places on earth. "Why aren't your images on there" she asked. Hmmmm, I said, I wasn't

aware of that site but I'll check it out. Which I did. Now to be fair, what they do is all above board and

spelled out....if one cares to look. Again, check the fine print! This website is run by the Door County

Chamber of Commerce whose job and purpose for being is to promote Door County tourism. It is NOT a

government agency, but basically a publisher who publishes the free hand out guides that are everywhere

up there and other places that travel is marketed. They charge businesses a handsome fee to have an ad

in any of their publications, I know, I've seen their rate sheet. I also used to sell them image use years ago,

but that use like most of such publications dried up years ago as they started using "free" imagery or

"submitted work", most of which was crap and the "submitted work" netted the amateurs submitting it a

byline only...sometimes.

They used to feature a lot of nature in their publications but nature no longer is good enough, they now

want "lifestyle" images with natural scenes but with mom and dad in khakis and blue denim shirts and 1

and a half children (I feel for the poor kid they split!). That formula fits the prescribed look they want to

promote. Ok it's their ballgame, and their publication and if one wants to play, their rules. But at some

point they must have tired of free but poor images and some genius came up with a new way of getting

better images but still for free. Let's have a contest someone said. It will be an ongoing one, and a source

of free images we can select from the best stuff submitted. And they know they'll get at least some really

good images from amateurs that have some dream of being Joe nature photographer. Albeit a nature

photographer that doesn't have to, or want to try to live off of a nature photographers income! Their

name will be "up in lights" but they really get nothing from their work, they devalue their own work and

even worse they devalue others work as well. With the Capture Door County ongoing contest, you will get

a byline, but you won't be compensated in any other way. To be fair that fact is spelled out quite clearly in

the fine print, if one reads it. They do have an opt out of consideration for the sponsors use of images, but

don't expect any selections if you do opt out, that wouldn't be in their best interest, even if it would be in

yours. I did put a couple older images on the site, clicked on the do not use button, just to see what

happens. They are there and I did get a couple nice comments. I also got some "advice" from an aspiring

pro... on how to compose my images!

"Autumn Forest Flow" © Hank Erdmann The Morton Arboretum, DuPage County, Illinois.

It is all about knowing exactly what rights you are giving away, or signing away, just by the act of

submission, whether you have signed something or not. There are some reasonable request that most

contest do make. I don't mind granting promotional rights for image use. Most of the time just by

submitting images you grant this right, we have such a clause in the prospectus and the agreement at

Gallery 7 for Open Lens. People running such events need to publicize and promote the event with the

images that will be in it or are representative of the image in the show. I'd be a lot more worried, to the

point of considering if I really want to a contest that didn't ask for promotional rights. If they don't, odds

are they're not going to be promoting the show so why even enter it?

If there is a sales part to the event, like Fine Art print sales for a gallery show or an image use component,

it's to your advantage that your image is being used to promote the event. There are more benefits to

entering such events, more than just the rare prize money, the notoriety of winning, or the byline. There

is value in judging your work against others and the recognition that even just being selected for inclusion

brings. To be sure that isn't the only valuation of one's work, it doesn't mean that your work is great if

selected or bad if not. Jurying of any kind is still very subjective, but it is nice and rewarding to be

selected, especially when done so by a jury of your peers. It does provide a spirit to further your work,

further your art, a reward for working at it diligently and to continue doing so.

If I would have advice on how to approach being a part of contests and juried exhibitions, it would be to

focus on the local shows. And not just on your local shows, but smaller regional events where the

organizations sponsoring the event is more likely to be doing it as a fundraiser for an artistic venue or

another valued organization, and less likely to be someone or some thing that wants your images for no

compensation. Local events will give you better odds of selection and will be usually close enough even

not in your home area that getting work there if elected will be cost efficient and you'll be able to attend

the event if there is a public exhibition.

At the same time I'd say don't ignore larger national events, especially if your are experienced and have

had some regional success, just know what you are getting in to and what you are agreeing to up front.

There are national and international contest that are legit and very prestigious. An acquaintance of mine

one won a contest put on by the BBC, which earned him a sizable cash prize, a paid trip to London, and a

hell of a lot of acclimation as a photographer. It can happen. It's just not likely. Nature's Best magazine

has a couple yearly contests that if you shoot wildlife and you are very good, you should enter. However

if you are equally good with other natural subjects like landscapes and close-ups, don't bother, they like

animals and 14 of 15 images feature animals. Know not only the rules but the likes and dislikes or

prejudices of any contest.

Go forth and submit, but do so wisely, with knowledge and foresight in your chosen venues.

Have a great Thanksgiving, Hank

"I am glad I shall never be young without wild country to be young in" - Aldo Leopold

"Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it" - Chief Seattle

"Snow Oak" © Hank Erdmann Morton Arboretum, DuPage County, Illinois.

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