" photo contests & the wrath of mediocrity "

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just off the bat, here are links to two photography contests whose submission period is about to end:

01. capture brooklyn

02. viewbook photostory

there is something inside of you as a photographer, that must be sated. you have a unique eye for the world, that much is a given. we're about as varied of visual artists as we are cell-based organisms.

we have bodies that are comprised of matter and have weight in the world; we displace the absence of space. we are here, and we exist.

your photographs too must embody a space. there is a place that your images displace the absence of not a thing, in which it will reside and flourish.

contests, and specifically photography contests, are sort of a gray area that photographers meander in and out of at times.

- should i enter?

- will i even have a chance at winning or placing, or am i just funding the contest itself.

- am i the $35.00 that will allow a higher budget for that banner on the site?

- will i feed some web designer's kid for 5.73 minutes?

- is it worth it?

these are questions that we all must ask ourselves when faced with an opportunity of a contest, whether or not there is an entry fee or not. one this is certain; someone, and perhaps there is a possibility of only one "someone" will see your work.

that promise is an intoxicating one. even in the age of self-publication, facebook-edness, emails to grandma, and other methods of imagery-based bombardment, it at times matters who will see it, rather than how many of faceless/nameless individuals will happen upon your specific image, like so many "next-blog-clicked-buttons" of discovery.

so i say go for it.

stick your toes into the waters and see how soothing the shallows are, or how mysterious the depths can be. you'll never know if you don't try. you'll never broaden your palate unless you give it a taste.

you'll never have a chance, if you don't take that risk.

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aout 25:

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aout 27:

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