Competitions
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Gardens for example, and we also have people from Gardens Illustrated , the leading horticultural magazine in the country. Judging takes place over a period of time – November to January for the 2013 contest. Can you give us some idea of how this is structured with so many pictures and so many judges? Prejudging is done online and then the judges will view a subset online too. The winner of each category is then voted for online by the judges before the votes are tallied and the judges all come together for discussions before the final decisions. IGPOTY offers something rarely (if ever) seen in a photography contest: the chance of feedback on one’s entry. Has this been well received? The reaction has been extremely positive. I believe that competitions are, of course, about winning images and people admiring and being inspired by winning images, but they’re also about encouraging people to move forward with and develop their photography. A lot of people enter the competition in the full knowledge that they’ll never win anything, they’re just interested in comparing what they do with the best that there is in the world, which I think is a very positive thing to do. That experience is very much improved by having a personal one-to-one viewpoint on why their image didn’t make it. Each year, the judges discard an awful lot of really fantastic images which just don’t quite get there for whatever reason and so there are a lot of very talented photographers who are passionate about what they do and we are very interested in feeding that passion, if you like. There are a lot of people who are really at the start of their experience of photography and they’ve decided to get involved with this project in one way or another. We want anybody who enters, whether they win or not, to feel that they’ve been involved in something important – that they’ve contributed towards helping to communicate the power that plants have in the world and the role that they play in our lives. Of the eight categories, which is the most popular category in terms of entry numbers? The Beauty of Plants. I think it is probably the most accessible category in the sense that flowers are all around us and they’re very available even if you don’t have a garden. People’s expectation of garden and plant photography nowadays is around big close-ups of plants and they can be very seductive images with a lot of colour and visual impact. What makes a winning image in your opinion? I think the one common denominator in all the winning images over the last seven years has been the amount of time, dedication and concentration that photographers have put into their work. It’s all about ‘whatever you put into it is what you get out’; it’s the same as anything else really. Are you currently seeing any particular trends? When we started, about five per cent of the images were submitted as prints. We don’t get prints any more, but we still get some images that originated on film and we had four or five winners in 2013’s competition which were originally shot on film. I think that high dynamic range imagery has really taken off in the last couple of years and we do see a lot of overworked HDR images. For a competition
Competitions are, of course, about winning images, but they’re also about encouraging people tomove forward and develop their photography ABOVE Poppy Field by Stephen Moore, The Beauty of Plants 2013, second place. TOP RIGHT Himalayan Poppy by Nigel Burkitt, Photo Projects: Macro Art finalist, 2013. RIGHT Jay taking Acorns by Alan Price, Bountiful Earth 2013, second place.
like this HDR does have to be used very sensitively to improve the sense of reality in the scene in front of you rather than imposing a style that creates a barrier between the viewer and the photograph. Have you any suggestions to photographers keen to enter the contest? Don’t try to second-guess what the judges like. The judges are excited, stimulated or inspired by the images they are presented with and they genuinely don’t come to the judging process with any fixed ideas or prejudices about which type of photograph will win. It’s about seeing what people do and being excited by what people do and that’s often about originality and technical expertise. What are IGPOTY’s longer term ambitions? To tour the exhibition in South Africa and Russia as well as in more venues in the United States. Is there anything else about IGPOTY that you’d like to share with our readers? I’d like to encourage people to have a look at the exhibitions, all the details of which are on the website, and I’d like to encourage people to have a go themselves. This year’s competition is now open and the book of the exhibition, which is available in online bookshops as well as on the high street, contains some very inspiring images which will help budding photographers develop their own personal vision.
Competitionentry
You have until 31 October to enter IGPOTY 2014. The eight categories are open to both professionals and enthusiasts: The Beauty of Plants Beautiful Gardens Wildlife in the Garden Breathing Spaces Bountiful Earth
Trees Woods & Forests Wildflower Landscapes Greening the City
There are also two seasonal Photo Projects held throughout the year, the first of which is Monochrome (entries until 31 March) and then Macro Art (1 April to 30 June). Entry is £10 and that entitles you to submit up to four entries into any one category; you can enter as many categories as you wish with submissions to additional categories charged at £10. The International Garden Photographer of the Year wins £5000 and the RPS awards a portfolio prize of £2000. Winners will be announced in February 2015.
π To find out more go to www.igpoty.com.
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Issue 6 | Photography News
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