Photography Competitions

In photography circles it is undenied that you should participate in photo competitions. But hey, don't get disappointed if you are never winning. It is not about the laurels and the fame, it is about the process. That is what I had thought. Until...

I participated in www.zumstein.ch. This is a site of a local shop in Berne, Switzerland, that is selling almost anything photographic. It is free to enter the competition and weekly prices can almost match professional competitions in Australia. Not that it's about the prices. I enjoyed studying styles of local amateur photographers. There are little to no official rules. Some weeks photographers can post any pictures, some other weeks they are bound by a given topic.

I had posted and seen it as an opportunity to gain some experience, fathom the deeply meaningful realms of photo competitions.

Maybe I should admit that I posted a few rather weak photos. One in particular made me feel embarrassed for quite some time. But, some of them, I was really proud of.

Not that I necessarily expected to win. Hey, it is not about winning for me. Ok with that? 

Back in Australia, one of my peers published an article voicing his thoughts about not having won a price at AIPP, not a single distinction. He is a renowned photo critic with a language that makes me dream and that sends me to places that are more poetic than some photos that are supposed to be of exciting artistic value. His blog post contained a photo that simply took my breath away. It was so extremely expressive. I even thought that it must have been an understatement that this was probably his best work in the last decade. If that is true and if this is not his picture of a lifetime, I missed some of his earlier pictures from other decades. Still, he didn't win anything at the annual awards, nothing but respect and pity from all of his mates, including me. He was after all, the person in my life, that had gotten me photographically to where I am, to someone that tries to look over the confines of documentary underwater photo taking. Naive to think that being declared my photographic person of the year would compensate him for the title of the photographer of the year, a title that he would have deserved and that he was deprived of in a ruthless but democratic (?) way.

How are you dealing with disappointment? That was about the time that Zumstein had a weekly competition topic going that I really didn't understand. When I told one of my friends about my struggle, I literally stumbled across a picture that could not be topped. It matched the topic more than just perfect. It was the incarnation of the topic. It was actually the picture of my lifetime. It was such a perfect picture that I kept it safe and never published it on my own blog. You never know if someday you manage to sell some of your old work. People stealing it from your website don't help turning them into some new photographic equipment, do they!? But: losing the photos and any recollection of them in the vast, unsafe space of your own hard disk and mind doesn't help either. So, at least some people might enjoy my photo.

Not only is this picture taken at the shabbiest, most dangerous dive sites at the Australian East Coast, a site with the lowest visibility, stone fish, fishing line, hoons AND the most boring background that you could imagine, a place that for the last three years I used to hang out on almost a weekly basis, mostly on my own. But it also shows an animal behaviour that is extremely rare to witness, let alone photograph. This is probably the single most precious picture to me and I didn't even crop the picture much. It is an animal eating, exactly what the Zumstein theme 'tierisch gut' had literally asked for. 'Tierisch gut' means 'animalistically good'. It is probably an allusion to a food commercial or a food brand. Anyone go out and try to produce a photo like this and I'll take my hat. If you manage to do so at the Seaway, I might even take my mask off for you, spit out my regulator and never go back there again. Having said that, I can respect that this is only a good photo in my own book. There was after all a simple photo in the competition that I liked better than mine. It showed a beautiful cat, Manolo, in a studio. I acknowledge the fact that the difficulty of a photograph does not matter and that it is the end result that counts. But neither of the only two photos that deserved it, won that week.

When you submit a photo to Zumstein, you'll get a confirmation that it was successful. Don't count on it. Despite a successful transfer my photos in a few cases never made it to the gallery. This is especially nasty because it seemed to affect the pictures that I would have rated high above average myself, pictures that I cared for. Censorship? The whole purpose of attending a photo competition in Switzerland was my belief that nobody would manipulate and mess with it. In Switzerland, true values, honesty and integrity are held high. It is not the affiliation or the reputation that are rewarded, not your heritage, nor the amount of money in your account, not business interests. Really?

A stupid ospey eating a striped fish might not meet everyone's taste. Fair enough, but why censor when ignoring would do?

Some of the competition themes are not met by photographic contributions with enthusiasm, innovativeness, nor technical brilliance. My picture would have been the only contribution to the topic 'autumn' that was slightly thinking outside the box. It showed an Oktoberfest. Censored! And probably this did not happen because of the beer, some uncovered skin parts or a missing model release (they agreed to being published). Actually, the following picture was my first attempt at portraits on a real event. I had sort of a coming out as an event photographer and was proud of some pictures. This one was one of my favourites.

But it is not about my photography. It is about a competition and competitions in general. Zumstein's winning pictures don't have my support, nor approval in about 90% of the time. How is that possible? These people should know what they are doing. Do they? Maybe you'll help me to decide. Have a look yourself at their webpage. It is not only that boring photos tend to win (among some rare excellent ones), but also some photos that are an insult to every other contestant. Gosh, I can not see anything good about some photos, anything special. Most of the time one of my best friends is posting really awesome photos. She only occasionally wins with them. But she won a competition with a photo that I think is lacking basics. So, how do you deal with an undeserved win, next to being ignored when you actually had submitted pictures that are undoubtedly 'best in class'? Or in my case, how do you deal with not having won any competition when it is obvious that even atrociously bad photos can win the trophy.

Is it worth winning? Is it worth participating? I admit, I got crabby because my crab photo did not loose against another good photo. It was a total insult to crown an unremarkable picture this week. Well, in this case, I would even have preferred to be censored again. I want to bring joy to people seeing my photos, portray the fun and the happiness that I am feeling when I take a good photo. I particularly like the challenge to reflect about a theme and see the photographic results. This crabby experience was a hint that I should not take it seriously any longer. I was planning to occasionally participate in the Zumstein competition, but not religiously try to post regularly, that I should see the good in every photo and reflect about that rather about who deserves to win.

Why, why was the next Zumstein theme 'drops'? I could not resist to share my tear drops with Zumstein. I tried to artistically express my disappointment in them by posting a photo specifically designed to reflect on their own photographic efforts, start a photographic conversation with them and their audience that was beyond words and complaints. It was fun, but serious fun. Zumstein is a name but it also means 'To the stone'. Hence, I wanted to bring my tears to the stone, under the theme 'drops'. Here is my result with the picture description in German (it explains how I got to the end result and my goal to produce a technically bad but fun picture without the help of photoshop).

Der Titel des Bildes: Traenentropfen Zumstein
Die Beschreibung: Die Fotographie entstand ueber meinen Unmut ueber so manche Zumstein Jurierungen. Mein Ziel war es, ein technisch moeglichst schlechtes Bild zu erstellen, das zum Denken anregt und witzig ist. Ein Stein aus dem Garten wurde zum Schuettstein gebracht (darum Zumstein) und mit wenig fotographischer Sensibilitaet oder Innovationsgeist abgelichtet (Canon 7D, EF100mm f/2.8 macro IS USM auf 100mm, 1/50, f.3.4, ISO 400, manuell vorfokussiert, handgehaltener remote ausgeloester Canon Blitz). Die Fotografie im Vollbild-Computerdisplay diente als Hintergrund. Den selben Stein habe ich zum Bildschirm gebracht, ergaenzt durch eine Tropfpipette mit Tropfenbehaelter und mit Olympus TG-2 (1/50, f3.4, ISO 400, handgehaltene Taschenlampe) abgelichtet. Eines der Resultate habe ich im Kameradisplay anzeigen lassen und als dritte Ebene vor Basisbild und Pipettenwiederholungsbild gestellt. Das Endresultat wurde mit dem Tropfbehaelter fuer meine Linsenreinigungsfluessigkeit ergaenzt und wiederum mit Canon 7D, EF-100 f 2.8 Macro IS USM, 1/60, f 5.6, ISO 2000 fotographiert. Das Resultat wurde in Lightroom 4 massiv und ohne grundlegende Sensibilitaet bearbeitet (die meisten Level auf 100 oder 0), sodass allseits geliebte Artefakte und allerlei fotographische Licht-, Farb- und Formfehler entlarvt werden sollten. Es wurde auch leicht ins Format 3236x4854 zurechtgeschnitten und in jpeg mit zumsteinkonformen Spezifikationen abgespeichert. Das Endresultat zeigt uebrigens die Umrisse eines fiktiven Zumstein Jurors mit Tropfenkopf, der oder die vor dem Betrachten des Bildes in der Kamera zu Beruhigungstropfen und Linsenreinigungsfluessigkeit greift. Hoffentlich haben auch humoristische Beitraege bei Zumstein Platz. Denn es gibt Werte, die haben jenseits vom Gewinndenken Platz. Mir hat's jedenfalls Spass gemacht.

No, I didn't want to win the competition this week. And, yes, I made the picture look awful on purpose. All I wanted was to express myself and be heard. But you guessed it: the picture was censored again. Come on, guys. You can do better than that. Without my knowledge or approval, my friend inquired about me being censored. It came out that I had never submitted my photo. Really? Is that so? Look, maybe/surely Zumstein staff are nice people. Maybe they are even like any photo competition organisers. But a transmission error may explain all but stupidity. Don't make me a stupid crab that doesn't know what I am doing. Why send out a confirmation for a successful transmission, just to hide and play the blame game. Maybe clean up your own act, guys. Maybe that would allow me not to doubt your judgement in the competition and blame myself for not being able to see photographic quality.

All good, though, no hard feelings. But it brings me back to my original topic, photography competitions. Can you grow photographically by participating in competitions? In my opinion, it is beneficial to know what is going on out there in the photographic world. We are living in a world, where our photographic understanding is based on making plausible references to society and to the Zeitgeist. Unfortunately, this society is somehow lost in vulgar, meaningless innuendo, in triviality, in facebook style self-indulgence. Being good, means stealing ideas efficiently and pack them in a new wrapping. That is called inspiration, isn't it. Being good means hitting the taste of a generation that is tasteless, to give them the games that they want, sensation and excess.

But don't photographers have to do more? How can they not get caught into the zeitgeist but move beyond when all they do is trying to please judges and critics? We might as well put the camera aside, create digital art with Adobe, be creative in the cloud. Zumstein, please, I can't cope if you are letting triviality win over artistic expression or even basic technique. I am struggling to see a picture win with a title that contains the word 'beautiful', especially if it is not even sarcastic. It is not beautiful to let such a picture win in a serious competition, or a picture with a big C for copyright through it, or a picture where unfair manipulation was not mentioned in the description. Or a picture where you can see Adobe artefacts from 20 metres away.

What you can learn with competitions is that they are irrelevant. They are filling a niche for trivial entertainment with fun moments maybe. I don't think 'pure art' (whatever that may be) comes along the way in a competitive manner. Oh, your art is better than mine. Oh, I won so many distinctions or competitions. Oh, I won without even being a member of the clan. I think photography should give everyone the satisfaction that they are getting out of it. It is a chance to be seen and be heard. We need a monetary system to get a ranking though, and ranking is as important as a record facebook likes. But maybe we also need a ranking of competitions. Don't try to read too much monetary or artistic value into a Zumstein victory. But learn to deal with reality! That I did.

Also, learn to appreciate the photography that you are doing. Being thrown into a photographic crisis, into a supposed loss of meaningfulness of genuine photographic expressions, I am looking back through my blog. When I started off posting photography beyond subaquatic levels I had in mind to learn about the quality of my own photos. I was mocking photo competitions by rating my own photos. Isn't that what photo competitions do, namely helping their followership in the claim to have won several photography competitions and therefore smoothen the way to economic success and maybe lifetime friends? And I am proud to say that I won all my competitions in all my categories. People being judges and contestants, pupils and teachers seems fair enough out there, doesn't it? On a more serious note, all I wanted to win was an understanding for quality in photography, especially my own photography.

My own competition was successful for myself. I learned and hopefully grew on my pictures. Participating in a photo competition outside made me realise that what counts most is that you like your own pictures and that you are taking no insult when there are morons out there who censor, steal and deny you some deserved gratification. It is actually no insult and there is no bad intent (mostly). It might be just random, totally Zeitgeist. However, rather than helping businesses to take advantage of my photos, I should share them with people that care, with people (or crawlers and spiders) that care to check my blog, as erratic as it may be (sorry to the few of you, that I make read my blog occasionally). After all my efforts, I still don't understand light. I am not Einstein! But I certainly do appreciate a photographic language that makes good use of light and that makes the best of sometimes adverse conditions. After only a few month of SLR photography, I am still at the stage of a first time dad, thinking every caterpillar in the mouth of a bird is an exciting event to be shared with the world as is the vomit of his newborn baby. But, I'll grow up and improve. Sometimes, good photos are a product of sheer luck. But at times, it is also sheer luck to notice when pictures have a special quality.

And like in my Zumstein tear drop photo, it is the reality within the reality that counts. Maybe there are layers of meanings that nobody cares any more to look for. Maybe we are all looking through some strange glasses, some strangely calibrated monitors. Maybe we have strange stories to tell. Maybe we utilise unconventional tools. Maybe we are nothing but tear drop heads, sitting on our fat asses, reaching out for our prescription medicines and purity drops and forget about the fun and some really important messages. And maybe we forget about our love for photography over it and bury it under rocks.

But one thing worries me, that we care more about alleged censorship that we read about in the news, and that we forget about the censorship that happens around us in our daily lives. It worries me that we all manipulate but that we are naive enough to assume that photo competitions are not manipulated. It worries me that we have to learn to manipulate better than our competition and that even our love (photography) has become a competition, and that likes and public recognition have to be earned on facebook and social networking where there is no room for individuality and for time consuming reflections and thoughts, where relationships are rationalised, sold in dozens rather than hand-packed. Think about it!

I'll try to find the other two photos that were censored (I mean encountered unexplained technical transmission issues) by Zumstein and post them here in the confines of my own peaceful, rarely contradicted little blog. It is and hopefully stays a hand-packed rarity and my only photographic competition at the moment.