For the last three years, I have made it a goal to compete as much as possible. I’ve always been a bit of a competitive person, so I liked the idea of being able to compete against my peers, at first. But after my first year, I realized that I wasn’t competing against my peers at all. Each year, I was competing against myself. The first year I entered the Professional Photographers of America International Print Competition, I did really well for a first timer. I merited my entire case and one image was entered into the Loan Collection, which earned me a Silver Medal. The Loan Collection is considered the best of the best, so on top of receiving merits for all of my images that year, a loan image was a huge honor. The following year, I wanted so badly to do as well as I had done the year before. Meriting an image at all in this enormous competition would have been a big deal, but because I had done so well the first year, it was no longer good enough. Luckily, I was able to match the results from year one in year two! So now this brings us to year three.
Year three has by far been the best year. I actually attended the International Print Competition instead of watching from home. I went and took part in the PPA Judges Workshop and was able to actually be in the room while many of not only my images, but my friends’ images came across the panel. And when not in the rooms, I watched with other attendees, cheering as my friends and colleagues merited images. It was exciting. And we rooted for each other. It’s not a game of “who among us will win?” It’s everyone cheering for everyone else. It forces us to talk about our work. To really analyze what we are doing to create as artists and craftsman. It’s making all of us better at what we do. To say that my work has grown over the last three years is an understatement. Because I’ve pushed myself each year to do better than the year before, I have forced the level of my work to get better and better. I’m not finished learning. I don’t think that’s even possible. But what I guess I’m trying to say is, if you want to improve, if you want to learn what you don’t even know you don’t know yet, print competition is the way to do it.
So why do I compete? I’m still competitive so there’s always going to be that factor. But now, I compete for the camaraderie and because I always have to level up. This year I did better than I have before, Platinum Medal. This means I merited my whole case of four images and loaned three. I’ve set the bar incredibly high for next year, here’s hoping for a great IPC 2017!
