Photography News 05

18

Competitions

Fancyentering?

THIS IMAGE Extreme Foraging by Ron McCombe. BELOW S’Ardia. Introduction to Life in Barbagia by Mattia Vacca. Silver Award winner.

This year’s International Print Competition is the 157th and it’s open to non-members and members of the RPS. The closing date for entries is 18 March 2014 but images can be changed any time up to the close of the competition.

SELECTORS: Paul Seawright Photographer and Professor of Photography at the University of Ulster www.paulseawright.com Anne McNeill Director of Impressions Gallery, Bradford www.impressions-gallery.com

Jordi Ruiz Cirera Documentary photographer www.jordiruizcirera.com

What are your future ambitions for RPS exhibitions – especially the International Print? We are looking at different ways of displaying prints and are aiming to increase the overseas circuit for showing the exhibitions. We want to further develop the International Images for Science Exhibition , which has been very successful since it was instigated in 2011 because of the stunning images. It is an important aspect of photography which The Society aims to bring to a broader audience. The Society is constantly looking at ways of developing RPS exhibitions to keep up with trends, whilst still maintaining the kudos that comes with its historical background.

Having images selected in the International Print Exhibition has helped launch the careers of many now well-known photographers including Julia Fullerton-Batten, Simon Roberts, Laura Pannack, Harry Borden, Justyna Neryng and Jordi Ruiz Cirera. We get great pleasure from seeing the subsequent success of those who have entered the competition. Looking through the thousands of entries, every now and then I spot one that excites me. If it is selected, we often use it on our publicity material. I was impressed by Emma Powell’s work in last year’s exhibition. She had a stunning cyanotype titled ‘Against the Storm’ selected and we have used it on some of our call for entries advertising this year. I was also impressed with the work of Carlotta Cardana, Sergey Anisimov, Guy Brown and Monika Drzewicz. What are the biggest weaknesses in entries? The biggest weaknesses are very badly manipulated and Photoshopped images or those that have glaring technical defects such as composites that are badly constructed with obvious drop-ins etc. If it is done well, a heavily manipulated image can be stunning, but done badly it is an obvious rejection. It is worth thinking about choosing a genre that is generally under-represented. We tend to lack good landscape, natural history and photojournalism images. The exhibition aims to showcase a diversity of genres and styles, so it is sometimes beneficial to try and think outside the box and consider what might stand out to the judges. The judges will be looking for images that make an impression on them and capture their imagination, be it for the subject matter, composition, process or some other element which shows skill or imagination. Do you have any advice for photographers wanting to enter?

Marc Aspland FRPS Chief sports photographer for The Times www.marcaspland.com

The biggest weaknesses are very badly Photoshopped images or those that have glaring technical defects

TimRudman FRPS (Chairman) Fine art photographer www.timrudman.com

ENTRY FEES FOR UP TO FOUR IMAGES: RPS member – £15 Non-member – £20 Under 30s – £10

PRIZES: Gold Award and £1000 U30s Gold Award and £1000 Silver Award and £500 Bronze Award and £250

π To find out more about entering, go to www.rps.org/157 or www.rps- international.org. To make enquiries about the competition, email exhibitions@rps.org. To find out more about the RPS, go to www.rps.org.

Photography News | Issue 5

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