Competitions, Ricoh GR and my first zine
Photography competitions are conceptually a bit strange to me. It adds competition to a subjective and creative activity, which isn’t something that I would say usually associates together. I guess this is probably an outcome of, along with excessive categorisation of sub-genres, photography being male-dominated.
Putting that to one side, clearly doing well at competitions is a way to “break through” and get your work noticed. Off the top of my head “Q-Train” by Paul Kessel is a good example of this; I hadn’t seen his work before he won the Miami Street Photography Festival competition in 2020 but since then I see his work all of the time. To be fair he has some great work (“Soho” being another favourite as well as the covid Mannequins).
“Q-Train” by Paul Kessel
There are a lot of competitions out there, it’s a bit of a minefield. Some feel like a bit of a money grab but the way I (and i’m not saying this is the correct way) determine the validity of the competition is based on 3 things: (1) Is it run by someone well known (2) it has well known and relevant judges for the genre (3) there is a real-world exhibition and not online only. I have paid to enter competitions in the past and quite rightly got no-where. This is clearly the Dunning-Kruger effect in action and I would imagine it is where these competitions earn most of their money. With this in mind I held off entering any competitions for some time.
As a side-note, Tim Huynh reviews (“reacts to”) photography competitions in an entertaining way, highlighting the worthy and the less worthy winners out there. Definitely one to subscribe to.
In 2024 I dabbled my toes in the competitive waters again. I was aware that Ricoh GR were running a “daily life” competition and while that doesn’t specifically scream “street photography”, I know one of 2023’s winners was a great street shot, “The Kiss”, by Willie Velazquez. You can see him speak about it here:
Why dabble now? Well based on my criteria above, Ricoh is a legitimate company, they have a real-world festival/exhibition and while I am not too familiar with the judges, overall it sounded good to me. Oh and it was free. One requirement is that the photos had to be shot with a Ricoh GR, so while it is a popular camera, that is a significant barrier to entry, hopefully increasing my chances.
Unlike prior years, I now have a body of work now that i’m quite happy with, especially work from Notting Hill Carnival, so that was where I took 3 images from to submit. Then a few months ago, on a drab grey office day, I received an email saying I was a winner! I was over the moon!
Hamish Ta-mé 3 winners
Hamish Ta-mé was the judge that selected my photo as a winner, so if he ever reads this, a big thank you! What was the prize? First and foremost it was validation. It’s all well and good getting likes on Instagram, but having a competition win under your belt confirms to yourself that you’re going in the right direction. The image is/was exhibited at the Ricoh photo festival in Tokyo (ends tomorrow: Thursday 27 February - Monday 24 March 2025) but alas, I was not there to see it. The printed images will be sent out to the winners, so i’m looking forward to receiving that.
To complete the circle here, my image was reviewed by Tim Huynh in his Ricoh GR festival review.
Finally a few words about my first Zine. If you’ve been keeping tabs on my Instagram stories (I’ve saved them in a “zine” highlight on my profile) you’ll know where I am but to quickly summarise, I am going to publish a zine on Notting Hill Carnival, containing 30 images and shot in the 3 years between 2022 and 2024. The sequence has been finalised and I am just awaiting some final test prints to arrive before pressing the button. It’s coming very soon - stay tuned!
Two initial test prints as I experimented with the cover. The final design will have the header similar to the NHC but will read “Carnival” and at the bottom in white and centralised will be my name.
It was “interesting” (British for frustrating) to see the impact on colour temperature/tint when switching between different finishes (back is more green with a silk finish, top is more pink with an uncoated finish) on the exact same image file.