The Importance of Competition

Over the course of my photographic education, few things have done more to better my image-making than print competition. Having someone critique your work is one thing…. having it judged by strangers in front of a crowd is something else altogether.

When I speak to groups of photographers, I’m always curious to see how many of them are active in print competition. Unfortunately, most are not. For every person who enters competition, there are 5 who say “maybe next year.”

The great thing about photographic competitions are that they force you to stretch yourself – both technically and artistically. Day to day work usually won’t cut it, so you have to go outside your comfort zone and create something that is truly exceptional. If you fall short, you are still better than where you started – so what do you have to lose? The person who scores a 72 still scores 72 points higher than the person who doesn’t enter.

I’m reminded of the famous quote by Theodore Roosevelt, from his speech at the Sorbonne in 1910:

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.