I recently entered the Onelife Photo contest sponsored through PDN, photo district news. I enter very few contest but this one seemed very interesting with great exposure, great opportunity and very prestigious judges. In the first part of this contest, if you entered early, you could be part of the peoples choice award. You were given the tools to spread the word through social media and have your audience vote. I liked that my friends could vote without being required to give any personal information and thought it really is about the photography. I had ASSUMED the galleries would also be made public through PDN or Onelife for the people to vote. When this did not happen I began to start questioning the motive and wrote them the following email
I recently entered the one life contest and felt I needed to email and voice my disappointment that the portfolios are not public for all the people to vote. I find this very confusing. I have a fairly large social media audience that I am campaigning for votes, but it hardly seems like a people’s choice but rather a popularity contest. I want a chance to win the peoples choice on the merit of my work and the appeal of it to a mass audience, not just how many hours I or my assistants can put into begging for votes through social media. I am quite confused by this.The reputation of PDN is stellar and I would have thought, through their site the galleries would be made public for their audience to vote ie the peoples choice. I would greatly appreciate a reply and some enlightenment on my assumptions of the meaning of peoples choice.
Today when I went to vote and again saw the advertisement of the contest with a link for more details, the light went on…. it is my belief that myself and my audience was being used to promote the contest… Brilliant marketing, I must commend them for that but at what cost… ? Too many times photographers are being manipulated like this in a way for very large organization to make a lot of money. This does seem to be the case here. Sadly these are the organizations that should be making a stand and giving value to professional photography when it has been so devalued for the almighty dollar. I will still enter a few contest such as BBC wildlife photographer of the year, natures best, and travel photographer of the year, as these contest have decades of integrity and it is truly about the photography but I will be a lot more learly of these new creative marketing ploys solely for the organizations monetary gain and the uses of my audience. If I want to market for a company I want it to be because it is for a good cause or I stand behind their products. I will keep my submission in for the main contest but am opting out of using my audience and their audience for the purpose of marketing this contest.
I hope this will also inspire you to take a stand and make your photography important. You will not see anymore request from me for you vote in this contest.
Comments are open, I would love to hear your thoughts.
Good for you, Piper. It’s important to stand for your beliefs. Two thumbs up!
Absolutely 2 thumbs up! Thanks for your integrity both in your work and in your actions on behalf of those who love your work.
Great post and I applaude your integrity, Piper. And I voted for you again today!
Good for you! I had considered entering the contest but I don’t like anything which requires soliciting votes from friends, seems like (as you said) a popularity contest. Sorry you had this experience. I would expect more from PDN.
Tom you made me laugh, thanks I needed that:). Thanks for voting. I voted again myself. I am touched by people still voting and please continue, but I wanted everyone to know if you are sharing with friends and they are sharing with friends, we are all just doing their marketing for free. They still could have done that but also had the integrity to put up the galleries live and let the people vote, ie people’s choice. Instead it was a big marketing scheme to get me to tell all my friends and they tell there friends etc in hopes that they would all sign up for the main contest. Clever but no thanks, I want my work to have merit and I don’t want to use my audience to market for them for free. Have a happy friday.
Abby, I too had expected more from PDN. As I said I rarely enter any contest, just the ones I stated in the blog, but with PDN behind this I trusted their integrity, instead they leveraged that to pull off one of the most clever marketing schemes I have seen.
Too often, I see the bottom line of contests as nothing more than either a marketing ploy from a company or as a method to gain quality creative content for corporate use for next to nothing while trying to make the winner feel vindicated by offering only recognition and peanuts in rewards. Perhaps this is due to my background in marketing and advertising but I am skeptical of any contest and often avoid 99% of them because of the fowl taste they tend to leave in their wake.
Agree with you Piper. Though I will continue voting each day for you. The contest may have a marketing smell to it but your work is outstanding and still deserves to win.;
My Dear Piper,
I’m Sorry For Your Feeling Used, As You Most Certainly Were. An Organization Like PDN (Pretty Damn Narrow) SHOULD Tell You The Truth. Alas, Nowadays, It is Very Hard To Separate Fact From Fiction. I Take Comfort Knowing That You Are Better Than Any of The Ruses They employ To Further Their Own Self-Aggrandizing Interests. You Are An Excellent Handiwork Of A Greater Hand. Know That You Will ALWAYS Have My Support And Votes. You Derserve So Much Better. And It’s Coming….I’ve “Seen” it. Just Be Patirnt And Stay True To Your Own Goals And Vision. Any Questions Or Comments, You Know Where I Am. <3HIM + U, kurt
Piper I completetly agree with you. I also entered the One Life contest. The rules stated that one could enter photographs at $10 per photo. I ented three for $30. The entry deadline then passed and I soon after received an email from PBN stating that most entrants had submitted four or more photographs and that I would have a better chance of winning if I sent even more, and that the deadline was extended by a month. I seemed like a come-on for more money. Then I received even more notices asking me to enter a travel photo competition, then a music photo competition. It became clear that PBN is holding all sorts of competitions just to raise money. I have never been informed as to who the actual winners of the One Life contest are. I will never enter another PBN competiiton. I wish I could get my money back!
Piper … first, I say, “Kudos!” on taking a stand. A stand I totally agree with. The very reason I do not enter contests. A decision that has limited my exposure and the standing/recognition/honorary winning or placing high provides. I also don’t have to deal with the frustration of being used and abused for the benefit of others. That happens enough in daily business.
I was surprised to just now receiving an email about this – since most of the comments here are nearly 6 months ago. Any update on the PBN issue? Did you even get feedback or reply from them?
Like so many other venues – of would-be-offers of exposure for creatives – that have been tainted, I feel compelled to move to develop an honest platform for creative work to be displayed and juried by a credible system. But, that’s a huge undertaking and I have too many irons-in-my-fire-pit as it is. “. o
It is good however, that people speak out- as you did – when this type of unethical action is taken; especially by those entities who portend benevolent advances toward the creative community.