sponsored by ..
The idea of someone judging your photographs is something that can make most people a little nervous. We’re inherently sensitive to social status, it’s built into our primate genes, and the idea of rejection being associated with something we care passionately about is quite stressful. However, our desire to share our work and see how it stands when made public outweighs the potential stress - otherwise, Instagram would be a much quieter place!
Competitions are a unique example of this desire to see how our work ‘ranks’ alongside others. I’ve said before that, in many ways, it’s an unhealthy activity. But I’ve since realised that it’s only an unhealthy activity if we read too much into it. In creating the Natural Landscape Photography Awards, my colleagues and I have tried to think of the activity as more of a curated exhibition, a way of bringing together and publishing work that inspires rather than concentrating on who is the “best”. Approached in this way, a competition can be seen as an opportunity to have a chance at having your work shared with a wider audience, with the decisions on which images get shared being made by a selection of your peers. Described like this, the competition has more of a relationship with an open, curated exhibition than a fight for a winner.
I’ve written an article in this issue about how we’re approaching this judging/curation process and I’d be interested in hearing if you have any other ideas about making the competition fairer. Submissions for the competition open on the 1st of June and we’ll be sharing an early bird discount code with the readers of On Landscape (if you want to register for your code now, please click here).
Tim Parkin
Tim Parkin
Issue 230 PDF
Click here to download issue 230 (high quality, 133Mb) Click here to download issue 230 (smaller download, 90Mb) more
End frame: Winter Morning by Theo Bosboom
At first glance, there’s not much happening in the bottom half of the frame, but it’s a wealth of fine texture and colour nuances, bringing a subtle line up from bottom left towards top right that meets the curve of snow crust. more
Judge or Be Judged
I’ve written quite a lot about competitions in the past but being as we’re so close to the opening of submissions for the Natural Landscape Photography Awards, I wanted to go into a bit more detail about the process of judging more
Subscribers 4×4 Portfolios
This issue our 4x4 landscape photography portfolio features are from subscribers: Derrick Sansome, Jerome Colombo, Johan Lennartsson & Rocky Thies. more
Ali Shokri
I never changed my vision, I strengthened it to look differently at the trees. They are not created just for fruits, they have another message. They have feelings, they live just like us. more
Wayne Suggs – Portrait of a Photographer
Wayne and another photographer by the name of Mike Groves were instrumental in the creation of the Organ Mountain Desert Peaks National Monument. more
The Transformational Power of Winter
Moorland streams, usually unnoticed, take the guise of snakes, upturned feeding troughs become space invaders, rough moorland becomes sand dunes, roads become lightning strikes, riverbanks ice realms. more
On Equivalence, Expression, and Art
Photographers aiming for equivalence are most often those who are intrinsically motivated to find value in the creative process for its beneficial effects on their own psyche and on the quality of their inner experiences. more
The Art of Leaves
There is artistry to a leaf that I find hard to put into words. In looking at leaves, the colours and veining, the patterns and textures, I get a good feeling. more
Turning Back from the Edge of the World
Overall the mood is quite dark and brooding. There is even a sense of melancholia, particularly if we bring our knowledge of these deserted, abandoned islands to the image itself. At St Kilda and Boreray we have reached the end of the world but we are not welcome. more