As top advertising creatives around the world arrive home from the sunny Med, clasping their Cannes Lions award metal, it’s time again to talk about the best competitions to enter if you’re a photographer. A question I am asked more than I can count.
And honestly the ‘best’ ones, if best is about elevating your career as a lens based image maker, are the ones the people you want to work with are looking at (like Cannes). They’re not necessarily photography competitions, but industry awards.
Advertising creatives and designers will so often seek out and hire photographers and directors who’ve worked on award winning campaigns in their world, because they want to join the ranks of award winners themselves.
So that’s where I’d start.
But competitions and awards offer so many different potential rewards, and before throwing your money at them all and getting pretty gold sticky pony club rosettes for your images (please don’t be tempted to add those), it’s super important to figure out what your reason is for entering.
1. Maybe now’s a tight time and you need some cash. One of my clients won enough cash to purchase a very decent new truck and was given a free trip to Hong Kong to attend the CA+ photo fest there, where he was signed by a rep.
2. Maybe you’d like to get some esteemed people in the art world to see your work, or a respected agent, or an art buyer. Choosing competitions which have those people on the jury is a fabulous way to get some impactful new work seen by them, even if you just make a shortlist or finals. I used to juror for IPA and always made a note of the work which I thought was impactful, and looked at their websites.
3. Maybe it’s about exposure to a wider audience. Winning most awards will do this but some are more impressive than others. When photographer Trent Mitchell won the Sony World competition with the series he made when we were working together (Image below), he was on national news and got global recognition. Soon after he was signed by a photographer’s agency.
4. Sometimes you just need to show that people are talking about you. Awards can provide PR fodder which helps less visually discerning people like marketing directors feel more comfortable about hiring you, and helps the creative folk sell you.
I can happily say that a large proportion of the photographers I’ve worked with (including Christian Mushenko who made the rooftop image on one of my programs) have been featured in Lurzers top 200 advertising photographers, which is by invitation only and always does a good job of impressing the right people.
Finally, if you want to enter awards, and it’s not just for cash, take some time to make sure your online presence is representing the photographer those jurors and potential clients will expect to see, and don’t let them (and yourself) down.
Every year when my clients’ awards tumble out – all the ones listed above and many more – it makes me proud to know I work with the best in the world, and that their brands are solid and working for them.
How’s yours looking?
If you’d like my help to become one of the top 200 advertising photographers in the world, registration for my next Bootcamp mentoring program closes on 2nd August NZT, so if you want to be considered please organise a Zoom call with me or drop me an Email ASAP. The call is free and at the very least I can answer some questions and help you understand next steps. https://christinaforce.net/
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