For the third year running I received the Dear Jackie/John email from The NPG National Portrait competition. I doubt I shall bother entering again.

I realised in the first submission that I was paying my share of the ‘crowd funding’  to pay off the prize winners. I was singularly unimpressed with the selection last year despite being OK with the 2012 selection. From what I have seen, this annual frenzy is a self perpetuating exercise in photographers trying to portray the TW look.

I thoroughly enjoyed making my portrait submissions over the last three years but no more for me. I shall continue to make honest portraits of the people I want to photograph as both I and my subjects actually like what they see. I am not seeking to become a clone maker. Nor am I prepared to pay into a huge fund to have my work summarily dismissed while the coins rattle into an ever increasing pot of gold for the organisers.

The Portrait Salon tweeted last night that the value of £107,458 in terms of rejected entries was what it cost but add to that production costs, travle or postage and collection costs and you can see the costs are very much higher for what is really a very small pot of rewards at the end of the day. Whose coffers does this money end up in anyway? Three days judging,, some admin for LCC maybe, 60 frames ……. What else is there?

I have however submitted my rejected portraits to the Portrait Salon 

I suggest tout les refusés should try their luck here. At least it is a no further cost option and with the support of Metro Imaging you know the print quality will be spot on.