This week on the Picter blog, we spoke with the National Executive Director of American Photographic Artists, Juliette Wolf-Robin. We chatted about APA, how they help photographers, and their current photo contest on Picter.
Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Jenna
Juliette, can you tell me a little bit about APA and the work you do?
Juliette
APA is a national organization with regional chapters around the country. It started out in 1981 as Advertising Photographers of America, and now it’s known as American Photographic Artists, which is meant to encompass the changes in the industry over the years and photographers from multidisciplinary areas. Our photographers do both commercial and editorial work, and fine art too. So it’s expanded from where it originally started.
The focus of APA is really in understanding what it takes to be in the business as a commercial and advertising photographer. We help make sure that the industry is run as ethically and safe as possible, and that it is beneficial to the people who are in it. Additionally, we want to ensure that our photographers are successful and their contracts are fair. Another focus for us is sharing information with our photographers about what’s going on in the industry. So, we do a lot of work in advocating on behalf of photographers. Having worked with photographers on their marketing for so many years and also having been a sponsor of APA prior to becoming the National Executive Director, it was an easy transition for me. I knew what people on that side might want from the connection with this association.
We also focus on education, so our photographers can be informed about everything from the latest trends to what they need to know about protecting themselves with copyright to getting started in the business. We are so community driven, and look for ways to bring people together from portfolio reviews to connecting photographers with talent or assistants. And now, of course, we are really focusing on diversity. How do we bring the next generation up? Most importantly, how do we get people to read contracts? That would be my number one thing. How do we get people to read a contract before they sign it?
Jenna
Can you tell us a bit about the contest and how you determine your categories?
Juliette
We really focus on having different categories that are within our world. We have categories for commercial, advertising, and editorial. We have architecture. We also have a corporate section and when you see the submissions, they are just beautiful. It’s really stunning work that’s created for that world, but maybe if it was competing against, for example, a beautiful portrait of a celebrity, it wouldn’t get the attention it deserves. That’s why we have different categories, so all these different types of work can have a fair chance.
Right: Photograph by Marie Bertiaux, Food & Still Life 3rd PLACE Winner, APA Awards.
Jenna
Are there categories that receive more submissions than others?
Juliette
Yes, for sure. I would say that portraiture is the most popular category. I would say that Corporate is a smaller category as far as submissions go. But like I said, I think some of the imagery that comes from that is really surprising. When I see it, I’m like, wow, that’s really great work. We do architecture and interiors, which I would say is probably a little bit less popular because more of our photographers are doing lifestyle, still life, food, and celebrities. We have a lot of entertainment industry photographers entering their personal work.
Jenna
Tell me about your jury. How do you decide on jurors, and how does the judging work?
Juliette
We have around 14 to 20 judges for the contest each year. I put different groups of jurors together for the different categories. By having more than one juror per category, they come together and then decide what they think are the strongest images.
All of the judging is done online, but I give them a chance to review with each other and agree. Do you feel that these are the three strongest? Do you want to discuss it? Because sometimes the jurors have completely different ideas of what they think a good sports photograph is, for example. I like that they get a chance to discuss it at the end of the contest as to why this one versus that one. Sometimes they completely agree and sometimes they don’t, but I want that feeling about the importance of choosing the images. There’s a reason.
We also don’t give them any criteria to follow. I try to find different combinations of jurors so that the result is always going to be different. That way, different people will have an opportunity to win because of the sensibility of the different jurors.
Jenna
I think that’s really cool that you guys don’t put those kind of parameters around what’s acceptable and what’s not, and instead just trust the expertise of the juror to give their input.
Juliette
We pick people who hire photographers. They’re either an art buyer, a photo editor, or a creative director. These are people who work with professional photographers all the time and see this kind of work. So when they see something that stands out to them, it means more because they’re not just looking at it as a pretty picture but they really understand why this image stands out over the others.
Right: Photograph by Jeff Sciortino, Conceptual 3rd PLACE Winner, APA Awards.
Jenna
I’m curious how many submissions do you usually see across these categories?
Juliette
There’s probably only a couple of hundred in each category, which always makes me feel like you really have a chance to win when you enter this contest. The competition is a good, solid competition and the jurors always feel like they’ve seen some great work. At the same time it’s not overwhelming because each juror only gets a couple of categories to judge. Then they can really manage what they’re looking at. And for the photographers, they’re really being seen. They really have a chance at winning. I like feeling that if you’re going to enter this contest, you really have a chance to win.
Jenna
What would you say are the biggest challenges you face in running this contest?
Juliette
Having people know about it. I would say that there’s just so much out there, there’s so much imagery, there are so many contests, there’s so many different things to know about. How do we reach photographers so they even know that they could enter this contest? How do we let photographers know that we allow non members to enter? We make the pricing better for members, hoping also that some of these photographers will join APA. At the end of the day, we are a not-for-profit association. Our existence is based on membership, so we want to attract members.
But my challenge with the contest and why we’re involved with Picter this year, is to find a way to reach an audience that I’m not already reaching. Our members might know about the APA awards, but I would say probably most photographers who are not an APA member don’t even know we have this contest.
The other reason we are working with Picter this year, is that Picter supports the opportunity to have a Series category, which we haven’t been able to do before.
This will allow photographers to not only present several images together, but also tell the jurors something about the project in their artist statement. I can’t wait to see the work!
Jenna
What is your favorite part of the contest?
Juliette
I would say I really like the jurors participating towards the end when they’re picking their favorites. I really like that aspect of hearing what they’re saying, engaging with the imagery, discussing it, and reacting to it. I really like watching how people within the industry respond to each other about the work.
Jenna
Do you have any advice that you’d give to organizations that are looking to run a photo contest?
Juliette
There are a lot of details that need to be worked out ahead of time. Because I’ve also judged contests, I don’t like it when you’re judging a contest and you have no idea how many images you’re going to see. With our contest, the jurors see between 200 or 400 images. They know that from the beginning. I’d also say, you need to be able to see the image both small and full-screen. Our contest is judged blind, which I like because it’s based on your reaction to the photograph and not what you think about that photographer.
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