It’s rare for me to enter photographic competitions; for a start there aren’t that many I feel qualified to enter, and when you strip out the ones with dodgy terms and conditions this narrows down the options even further.
But last year I decided to enter the British Life Photography Awards, a competition which celebrates British life in its many, varied forms. The photos don’t even have to have been taken in the year of the competition, which is some help to me, though most of my catalogue wouldn’t fit the criteria of the competition.
I entered a small selection of photos including my portrait of Donald at the local tyre fitter’s shop and a few from my Standerwick series which studied the life and work of the farmers, traders and auctioneers (as well as the animals) at Frome livestock market.
Out of the set I submitted, one did get shortlisted, though sadly it didn’t make the cut for the final rounds. But still, it’s been many years since I entered any competition at all and I was pleased to even get shortlisted.
The BLPA competition itself isn’t free to enter, but the fees are reasonable and the T&Cs don’t grab complete control of the entries, so I very much hope to be entering again this year. I’ll also be on the lookout for other competitions with similar aims of simply recognising good photography because it can be a great way to give myself more motivation to take pictures of the subjects which interest me, push me to be more technical and “pure” in my approach and hopefully will give me something to crow about when I win!
