In an attempt to change my attitude and be a little bit happier, oh and because it actually may be fun, I decided to enter some images into a photo competition. Two competitions even… I have only done this once before and never even heard back. Oh well.. new days and all that. The theme of the one festival, Foto Festival Naarden, is ‘Portraits’ which, yay, is right up my alley. It is what I do after all. Should be easy enough to find something good enough to enter… I look for the Rules & Regulations.
“All photos must be taken between January 2009 and January 2011.” No problem. One can submit 1-5 images. Also not a problem. When submitting a series, the photos must form an “unbreakable unit”. Oh. I don’t do series that well. Stand alone images are more my forte than series but then again Swimming Upstream is my attempt at a series so I should be able to find something. I read on… Sub Themes… Oh #2… there are 8 of them but ai, there isn’t that much choice at all for me as I hardly fit any of the themes. In fact, I only fit one.
The sub themes are Bare Essence (nudes), Famous Heads (your own visual interpretation of someone famous), Just Me (selfies), Second Skin (people in uniforms), Photoshop Mania (go PS wild), Polaroid vs SmartPhone, Studentenwerk (whatever you are working on at Art School) or On Going Project.That only leaves one category for me, as I don’t have any nudes, I have famous people or well-known people but they aren’t Dutch, I don’t like doing self portraits and therefore have non, I use Photoshop but don’t go wild which could be a reason to enter into this category as I could be part of the low-end of the Photoshop spectrum but I am assuming there are looking for all out photoshopped images. Then there is the Polaroid vs Smartphone one well ugh… I like the idea of an established photo festival trying to incorporate smartphones etc but well… I don’t have a smart phone or a Polaroid so that possibility is out as well. I am not at the Academy of Art nor have I ever been at the Academy of Art which leaves On Going project as the only possible category.
Cool. On Going Project it is then. It’s what Swimming Upstream is and hey, maybe it’s not a bad thing to only fit into one category. Kinda how things are for me anyway. I want this, not that etc…
Back to Rules & Regulations. Besides fitting into any of the categories one must either be a student at an established School of Art, belong to a professional photographer’s association (I don’t but could join one today and enter the competition tomorrow), belong to a photo agency (aaah Duncan? Help:-) uhmmm ok I belong to World Portraits and will be included in The Imaginarium’s database), be able to name a professional reference (wtf.. what does that even mean? I’m sure I can?), won stipends or grants etc (nope) and/or have exhibited one’s work… phiew… finally YES. Cool.
What’s next? Ah… 35 euros entrance fee. For someone as broke as I am 35 euros may as well be 3,500 euros as zero money is zero money but oh well it can’t be that I can’t do this over some silly entrance fee so I’ll make it work. Somehow.
Now this turns out to be a really nice bridge to my next uhm… “dilemma”. The friend’s mother I mentioned in September Girls sent me an email looking for some images and is willing to pay for them, however, she is not looking to buy a printed and framed photo but a high res image and wonders what would it cost. Good question and great, except that it feels very wrong to ask her for money. It feels wrong for a couple of reasons. If she was buying a physical product where there are actual costs involved it is easier to charge money. Let’s say she does want to buy a framed image, then I’d have something to hand over to her and that she could put on the wall. Now it is simply sending an email on my side and she still has to drive to town to get something printed and framed and all costs are on her side. The other thing is, that my friend has been a huge help in my project and well, a friend. Charging his mother just feels wrong. And my final thing is, seeing how I don’t have an SA bank account but a Dutch one most of the money would get lost in international transfer fees. Guess the answer would be to charge her 35 euros… but the transfer fees are more than that… Ugh.
Any suggestions, ass kickings or any comments of the “stop whining” or “get your butt into gear” are welcome:-)
I am now going to come up with a selection to send in…Have a vague idea of which ones but not sure at all yet. It’s going to be a “kill your darlings kind of day” I’m sure…
Listening to Suarez (easy French folk pop), Dazzled Kid and White Lies. And still backing up files of the last 6 months. Have cleared out 38 gigs so far… Also have to go to a temp agency today…
Oh and the photos: top is Tristan Waterkeyn, then Tshepo Moche and bottom one S.A. Partridge and Timothy Lester. About time to do some new shoots:-)
KATHALIJNE VAN ZUTPHEN 
too many fucking rules!
and the thing is, if anyone else were buying your work, whether in printed or downloadable form, they’d still be paying for your art, your talent, not just your costs. so you should charge for it. but yeah, it sucks when its a friend.
best of luck in figuring out this dilemma, i’ll be having
#how tosolvetheproblembeer# for you
Ja quite a few rules eh! and I know I should charge… but it would just be easier if it wasn’t a friends *mother* wanting a photo of her son, especially one who helped me out a lot and who always says yes when i need something and always just *gives* it to me… I think I just answered my own question:-) You should still have that beer for me though. Can’t wait to sit on your deck and have one with you! Keep your fingers crossed that I will be accepted for thi sfestival/competition:-) x
What Karin said 🙂
Charging money for your photographs is always difficult but you get used to it. There is nothing wrong with being payed for your work. If you and your friends mother would have a ‘Paypal’ account she could transfer the money with very little cost to your email and then into your account. If you havn’t got an account yet check out the possibillities on http://www.paypal.com It’s easy and works very reliable.
Thanks for replying! Ja, … I know, charging money is fine by me:-) it’s just that in this case it’s a friend’s mother and a friend who’s been a big help. It would make me feel better to hand over a printed or framed image instead of sending an email… but hey, thanks for the paypal suggestion! Didn’t think of it + it gave me another idea:-) Are you entering FFN btw? groet:-)