POTY 2011: First details

[PolaroidSky]

No portfolio category this year?... gutted! : (

Still, going to have fun and work hard trying to get some shots to upload in a few months! Good luck to all and everyone that do likewise this year! : D

[PolaroidSky]

According to the site, there is no category for Portfolio!...

I don't mind a tenner anyways... compared to many paid entries £10 is nothing, most in the US run to as much as 80 or 90 dollars and if I save a pound a week not to big a stretch... though I was looking forwards to entering a portfolio submission very much

[ABERS]

Hello everyone

Digital Camera magazine will be providing full details regarding the 2011 competition and responses to your questions on the new Photographer of the Year website which goes live on the 14th of March.

Marcus

Have you answered the question why you decided to impose a £10 charge this year Marcus?

[Marcus Hawkins]

Originally Posted by ABERS

Hello everyone

Digital Camera magazine will be providing full details regarding the 2011 competition and responses to your questions on the new Photographer of the Year website which goes live on the 14th of March.

Marcus

Have you answered the question why you decided to impose a £10 charge this year Marcus?

Morning

There's an FAQ on the Photographer of the Year 2011 site...

Marcus

[silversnapper1]

I've just been looking at the FAQ and YOU CAN VOTE FOR YOUR OWN IMAGE.

[karenoliver]

Originally Posted by silversnapper1

I've just been looking at the FAQ and YOU CAN VOTE FOR YOUR OWN IMAGE.

Yeah , I voted for mine! :-) But I've also voted for others too.

Karen

[ABERS]

Originally Posted by Marcus Hawkins

Morning

There's an FAQ on the Photographer of the Year 2011 site...

Marcus

Thank you for your prompt reply Marcus.

Having now been to the POTY site, I notice there isn't a porfolio section for 2011.

As a matter of interest did the 2010 winner of this section offer his winning panel to the RPS for consideration for an LRPS? If so did he/she get it?

[Stormsong]

Under FAQ: the list of judges - 'web page not found . . . ' oh dear, perhaps you haven't found any judges yet?

The part about why an entry fee is being charged for the first time is not entirely satisfactory - staff costs, maintaining the website, running the site etc etc. So how come you managed to do it free for 4 years, DC? Surely your annual budget is worked out accordingly in advance and these things are taken into consideration?

[dwanecolaso@yahoo.com]

C'mon guys explain to stormsong and everyone else. Your charging to enter but citing admin costs. Let's toss some figures about; if 5000 photographers ( at the least ) enter you will accumulate £50,000. Let's guestimate your admin costs, he'll let's be generous , nope let's be super generous. You pay £10,000 costs and it'll still leave ya £40,000 ; £20,000 prize fund... £20,000 profits. But we know more than 5000 will enter, just how greedy do you want to be guys? Increase the prize fund or swallow the costs , otherwise this years poty will bomb.

[grahamhgraham]

My own estimate is that there will be no more than 1500 entries which of course means a direct gross income of 15k. After staff, overhead & other running costs, I don't expect there will be much change left, leaving just enough to cover some of the prize money as stated in the rules.

All print media has suffered from diminishing ad revenue & increases in overhead (costs) so a change in the format of this competition didn't come as a surprise. I thought the offer last year was, in light of the general economic malaise, rather generous. And there appears to be an attempt to democratise the prize distribution
for 2011 which seems more balanced.

The problem with 'free' entry is that the overwhelming majority of submissions are, putting it kindly, rubbish. Check out the Macallan Masters of Photography Competition which is free to everyone. Not only is the overall quality of submissions very low, the theme, "Great Journey" has barely been considered in the vast majority of work, making a mockery of the whole event. And the voting mechanism is dependent on entrants having large lists of friends, no doubt all resident on Facebook or Myspace.

I'd rather compete with more serious contenders & take my chances at being measured by people in the photographic industry. Of course I want to win but so what if I dont. I at least feel that I have participated in something worthwhile, genuine, valuable & most of all relevant. And the exposure on this most visited of websites can do no harm whatsoever. As for the Macallan competition, as soon as the pages started to fill with arbitrary nonsense, I withdrew my three entries & wrote to the organisers to explain why. The wrote me back and to my surprise invited me to reconsider. I did & told them my decision was final. There are other more worthwhile events to participate in. I shall stick to my convictions for now and support this competition. Let it runs its course before making a final judgment.

G2