Stage three, Week three: Useful resources and competitions

Useful sources

Artist newsletter: https://www.a-n.co.uk/news/

The Artist Newsletter or a-n the arts information company are a membership organisation which supports artists, working with them in multiple ways which are practical to them. They are also supported by the Arts Council England and work in partnership with multiple companies such as Artsquest, Crafts Council and the Design Trust.

The Artist Newsletter is really useful as its memberships vary depending on what they are needed for and what kind of artist you are. An example of this is there  Artist membership which includes the following.

They also offer Student Memberships

Arts Organiser memberships

Day passes

These are just a few of the memberships that they offer and I think that ever type of artist can find a membership which could be relevant to them.

axis arts web: www.axisweb.org

Useful independent charity that is used to help support artists though giving them a platform and profiling what they do. They also provide a space to get feedback, network and have availability for awards. They also find it important to have regular contact with the people they are working with. Their team includes artists,  curators, producers and writers but is very small so this can be an affect on the way they run.

Axisweb also offer memberships on there websites which include

The Opportunity Finder Membership

This membership includes

This membership is really useful for artists looking for work and is also very affordable at £1.75 per month or £17.50 per year.

 

Online portfolio/ promotion membership 

This membership includes

This membership would be useful to someone who just wants a plateform to show and promote there work at a very low and affordable price. It is £1.75 per month or £17.50 per year.

The Network Associate Membership 

This Membership includes

This membership would be useful for an artist who is looking to develop there carrer and is working on ongoing projects. This membership is £2.50 per month or £25 per year.

The Membership Bundle  

This membership includes

This Membership is good for an artist which is looking in to doing it professionally. It includes everything which Axisweb has to offer. This Membership is the most expensive of all the memberships at £4.50 per month or £45 per year but it includes everything an artist could need.

 

Photography Competitions 

I think photography competitions are really important when it comes to developing and growing as a photographer. Photography competitions give us a chance of getting our work into the world of photography, winning some gear or money. However I do think that photography competitions can be important for more reasons then for just winning.

• They make you look at your own work, harder then you usually would and critic it.
• Pushing you beyond your comfort zone
• It can help you get noticed
• Feedback
• Prizes

Photography competition which I applied for

I applied for this completion with some of my older work which I did in first year as I felt it fit the brief of “Environment” which was actually the same as what the project was made for in first year. I will not find out for a few months if I was successful or not but I felt that this competition, if I’m successful or not will help me with getting into the routine of applying for competitions.

Here is a list of some other competitions which could be useful to me in the future.

• FotoEvidance Book award
• Book Dummy Award
• IAFOR Documentary Photography award
• International Photography Award
• The Independent Photographer award

Why these awards will be relevant to me

FotoEvidance Book Award 

This award is designed to help long term documentary photography awards help get a platform which will be turned into a part of the fotoevidance books. I think this award could be useful to me as some of my projects I would like to have long term and in the end turn into a books.

Book Dummy Award 

This award helps with the publishing of no less then 1000 copies of your own book if won. Again I think this will be useful if I really want to make my work into a book and also have some promotion behind it.

IAFOR Documentary Photography award 

I think this award will be relevant to me as its a documentary based award so my style of work would fit this. Also some of the prizes which are offered could be really useful to me, such as being able to exhibit in different countries such as Japan, USA and Spain aswell as the UK. This could help me really spread and promote my work on a larger scale. It also offers a cash prize which could be used to help me buy some more equipment or to travel to the locations for my projects.

International Photography Award 

I think this award could be revelant and useful to me as there is many different categories which my work could fall under and this award covers almost all of them. It also has some great perks including a $10,000 (£7602) cash prize which could really help me in achieving some of the goals which I would like to reach but at the moment I can’t because of money. This includes, photographing in different countries for a long period of time, buying more of my own equipment e.g. Also the awards are highly promoted which means my work could reach more people.

The Independent Photographer award 

This is another award which would offer me a cash prize, global exposure  and also that my work would get exhibited and published.

 

Although some of these awards can be pricy I think that in the future they may be things in which I will enter as I could get very good rewards from them. Although I think for the time being I am going to just apply for the awards which are free or not too expensive, till I have the money to spend money on more expensive companions.