I have been entering print competition for years. I have my Master of Photography degree and a list of awards to show for our beautiful client work.
Last month, I entered print competition for a photography convention in Florida, and of the 1,000 or so entries, my image was in the overall top 3 scoring images. I was thrilled! How exciting. My image was of a beautiful high school senior client with the most gorgeous afro. She is wrapped in translucent gold fabric, with gold leaf makeup and gold gelled lights behind her highlighting the texture in her hair and her gorgeous ebony skin.
After my initial glee, I started looking at the other top scoring images by other award winning, ultra-talented artists. One by one, they were all unparalleled. And one by one, I noticed a trend. Not another image in the top 10 was of a person of color. Nor the top 20. Nor even the top 40. To get to the next person of color, you had to go all the way to the 44th top scoring image in the list.
To my dismay, when I looked at these entries and consider other print competitions in general, the entries are repetitively monochromatic skin tones. As a society, we have initiated a huge movement towards awareness of how BIPOC are treated and the lack of equality. We ask for diversity in technology, science, politics, medicine, and many other industries. But suddenly I see that we are not supporting that awareness in the arts. Our client base is diverse - so why on earth would our print competition entries not reflect that? And if they aren’t who is going to stand up and do something about it?
I WILL. As artists, we get to decide the story we tell. We get to decide what we communicate to our viewers. And we get to decide who is portrayed in our images. How do we get more diversity in the arts? By choosing to photograph and compete with image diversity, I can participate in that change. I pledge, for our 2022 International Print Competition, the portraits I submit for print competition will be predominately BIPOC. We can make a difference, one image at a time.
Will you join me in this effort? Are you interested in becoming one of our models for our 2022 print case? WE WANT YOU! If you are on board with our mission, please send us your application by April 5th. If you know someone that would love to hear about our mission, please share!
Making a difference, one photograph at a time.