Pride Photo Award

Joeri Kempen (photo by Linelle Deunk)

Recently a survey was held amongst the entrants of the 2011 contest to find out their thoughts and points for improvement.

The respondents were mostly satisfied with the setup but as we hoped they also suggested improvements. The entrants requested more feedback and information following the end of the contest and some people encountered problems with the software while uploading photos.

We are happy to announce that new software is being developed. Last year any changes to submissions had to be made by our staff . For the 2012 edition, the software will give participating photographers more control over their entries. They will also receive a confirmation when the upload is successful, something that many people missed last year.

The respondents were mostly satisfied with the overall communication but some minor things will change. Entrants will receive more updates on the state of affairs and the outcome of the competition. People who have been encouraged to participate but did not win, expected a more personal message at the time of the announcement of the winners. We will try to do so but the sheer number of people who have to be informed at that very busy time makes it hard to write everyone a personal message.

Suggestions were made to send out editorials and to have the Call for Entries available in more languages. We sent out editorials a few weeks ago and expect to see them in several photography magazines, websites and blogs. We are also working on translating the Call for Entries. Since there is no budget for translators, we are looking for volunteers to do this.

The feedback showed some comments of ‘too much moralism in the contest’, the winners not being ‘truly groundbreaking, more controversial than a full proper statement’ and insufficient represen­tation of ‘everyday life’. Pride Photo Award has a message of diversity, so there is indeed a moral attached to the contest. As we try to show the world images of diversity, this means there will both be images of everyday life and more controversial images. Ideally it is a good mix, representing that diversity. Pride Photo Award will never be only the one or the other.

One person expressed concern that participants from distant countries would not ‘be given a fair chance as the cost of travel would have been extremely high’. This concern can be dismissed. We have a budget to cover the travel expenses for the first prize winners, regardless where they are from. Secondly, the jury does not know who the entrants are or where they are from, so this does not play any part in the selection process.

The respondents who participated in the survey are between 23 and 68 years old and came mainly from America, England and the Netherlands. There were slightly more male than female participants and they were -either as a professional or amateur photographer- mainly working in art and documentary photography. Pride Photo Award likes to thank them for their participation and for their feedback.

Yesterday the Dutch Journalism Council announced its verdict in a complaint against the use of a photo of naked buttocks to illustrate an article about a gay couple that had moved fom their home to escape harassment. The Council concludes: “The use of this photo (by Spitsnieuws.nl) under these circumstances is stigmatizing and furthers discrimination, and is unacceptable journalism”.

Dennis Boutkan, chairman of COC Amsterdam and Pride Photo Award who filed the complaint in December is very pleased with the verdict’s clear message: “This is the first time a fundamental statement is made against the use of stigmatizing photos that have a negative effect on the way people look at LGBT’s”.

The Council found the claim legitimate and fomulated a clear verdict: “The Council considers it is not implausible that the average reader gets the impression that the gay couple themselves are to blame for the harassment. This confirms a stereotype about gay men, while there was no ground to do so. The use of this photo under these circumstances is stigmatizing and furthers discrimination,   and is unacceptable journalism”.

COC Amsterdam and Pride Photo Award hope that this verdict will help prevent careless and ill-considered use of images that enforce prejudices.

The theme for 2012 will be ‘Chameleons/Double Life’. Just as last year, one of the categories will be devoted to this theme.

 ‘Chameleons/Double Life is the mirror image of the 2011 theme Straight back at you’, says project manager Joeri Kempen. ‘Last year’s theme looked at the way the outside world reacts to people who are different from the norm. The 2012 theme is about the way people adapt to their environment.’ Pride Photo Award is looking for photos about the choices people make in whether or not to adapt: the conformists and non-conformists, those who are living at the edge of the norm and the extremes; people with alter egos or double lives, either secretly or openly.

With this theme Pride Photo Award invites people to reflect on being yourself. How far do we go in our choices to adapt to conventions and norms? ‘In some countries it is dangerous to be openly lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. Society leaves those people no other choice then to lead a double life’, says Joeri Kempen.

The other three categories for the 2012 contest are Documentary, Gender and an Open category. The number of categories has been reduced from six to four. The high quality and diversity of images submitted last year suggested that four categories are enough to make a selection showing the diversity that Pride Photo Award is looking for. Photographers can enter series of ten photos in each of the categories. The international jury will select the winning series in July. The exhibition will be shown from the 28^th of September until the 28^th of October in the Old Church in Amsterdam, a new and centrally located venue that will appeal to both a national and international audience.

The preparations for the Pride Photo Award 2012 contest and exhibition are in full swing. Photographers who want to enter the contest and send in their work can register and submit their photos between April 15^th and June 30^th through our website. In the second week of July the international jury will be flown in to Amsterdam to select the winners. The names of the jury members and the theme for 2012 will be announced in the next few weeks.

This year’s exhibition will run from September 28^th to October 28^th. The Old Church in the historical centre of Amsterdam has been chosen as the venue for the 2012 central exhibition. This church was built in 1306 and also hosts the well-known World Press Photo exhibitions. We expect that we may welcome a larger number visitors at this new venue due to the central location. Even without an exhibition the church normally welcomes some 8,000 visitors during the month of October. Pride Photo Award is looking forward to hosting the exhibition at this beautiful historic location.
 

Is a picture of naked male buttocks taken during a Gay Pride a fitting image for a news story about a gay couple that has been harassed? Spitsnieuws.nl thought it was. Pride Photo Award put this case before a panel of experts during media debate ‘Better Image’ on January 19^th 2012.

The panel consisted of: Liesbeth Melkert, chief photo editor for Het Parool; Hanneke Felten, researcher and advisor on youth and sexuality at Movisie, Chris Heijmans, editor NU.nl and editor in chief of NUfoto.nl and Martijn Kleppe, candidate for a doctorate at the Erasmus School of History, Culture en Communication and blogger at Photoq.

The photo in question disgusted the panel. “Bizarre”, was the reaction of Chris Heijmans. According to the panel the cause of these lazy and stereotyping choices of photo use lies in a lack of suitable stock photos and a lack of time. The latter is especially true for online media, where a picture is needed for every news item to attract readers.  The panel agreed however that the main reason is the lack of creativity when looking for good pictures and the lack of commitment to really (want to?) concern oneself about the sensitivities that surround complex topics like minorities, sexual violence or – for instance – social services.

Another aspect of the problem is the lack of photos featuring LGBTs in every day news items. Chris Heijmans gave an example: an innocent picture of two men kissing caused a storm of protest because people seldom see this kind of image. More lecherous pictures of Pride Parades do not evoke this same reaction, simple because people are used to them.

As a solution the panel proposed to train students of journalism on how to deal with sensitive subjects like minorities, including the selection of appropriate images. The LGBT community could take the initiative in supplying better material. Finally Martijn Klepper called for the media to be have the guts not to use a photo rather than a stereotypical one and to always add captions in order to provide a context for the picture used.

The representatives of the media acknowledged the problem and stated a commitment to finding solutions. ‘An image bank with good stock photos  of LGBTs? Yes please. I will pay money for that!’ Liesbeth Melkert said.

Pride Photo Award will confer with a number of parties to see the solutions implemented.

Once again Paul Koeleman has won the Audience Award 2011, this time for the exhibition at art fair Realisme at the Passenger Terminal in Amsterdam. His winning series ‘Good Old Gays’ depicts gay and lesbian couples that have been together for over 30 years.

The 10.000 visitors of art fair Realisme 2012 could vote for their favorite of the 18 series shown at the 2011 Pride Photo Award exhibition there. With 17% Paul Koeleman’s series ‘Good Old Gays’ had a clear lead on the runner-up, ‘Prosecution of homosexuality in Uganda’ by the French photographer Benedicte Desrus (SIPA Press) who garnered 12% of the votes.

The third place went to the American artist Erica Beckman. Her series ‘I © Brooklyn Girls’, based on the covers of lesbian pulp novels from the ‘50’s received 11% of the votes.

In her ‘Talk to Aletta’ blog of September 12, Aletta’s Antia Wiersma demonstrates a prophetic talent. She predicted who would win the Audience Award at the exhibition of the winning photos of Pride Photo Award 2011. The audience nominated their favourite entries out of 18 photo series: the numbers one, two and three from six different categories. Together they displayed a wide variety of subjects and photographic styles.
This diversity was very much in keeping with the aims of Pride Photo Award: demonstrating the diversity of the LGBT community and of gender identities. Photographs that made people reconsider notions of masculinity and femininity.

Photographs about violence, such as the conceptually strong series by Martijn Gijsbertsen – ‘Same Time, Same Place’ – who photographed victims of homophobic violence with the Google Map of the crime location projected over them as a visual scar.

Gijsbertsen ended in third place, after ‘A Series of Questions’ by the American photographer L Weingarten. In his series, transgender people hold up a sign with questions they have been asked – sometimes by strangers, sometimes by family – such as: “Do you still have a vagina?”, “Why can’t you be a regular gay guy?” and “Haven’t you already done enough to hurt me?”

The winner of the Audience Award, however, is one of the most positive sets in the exposition. The series ‘Good Old Gays’ consists of portraits of gay and lesbian couples who have been together for thirty years or more. Paul Koeleman took photographs of them at home, close together. The place where he took his pictures, their posture, their clothes, all suggest an attachment, a solidarity, an enduring love.

As Antia wrote: “These photos pay homage to love and faith. And it is fitting that they should be the concluding piece of the exhibition. Having been shown a lot of misery and injustice – however beautifully photographed – members of the audience will still leave the exhibition with a feeling of hope after seeing ‘Good Old Gays’.

Love conquers all.

Paul Koeleman wins the Audience Award  of Pride Photo Award 2011 with his series ‘Good Old Gays’: portraits of gay and lesbian couples that have been together for over 30 years.  “The idea that gays and lesbians only hang around in darkrooms and are incapable of having a lasting relationship is incorrect,“ he says.

Visitors of the 2011 Pride Photo Award exhibition could nominate their favorite of the 18 series shown. With 18% Paul Koeleman’s series ‘Good Old Gays’ had a clear lead over the runner-up, ‘A Series of Questions’ by L. Weingarten, who garnered 14,5% of the votes. In his photos, transgenders hold up a sign with a question they were asked, such as: ‘Do you still have a vagina?’ or ‘Why can’t you be a regular gay guy?’

The third place went to a Dutch photographer as well: ‘Same Time, Same Place’ by Martijn Gijsbertsen. His series show victims of gay related violence. Google Map projections depict the location of these hate crimes as visual scars.

It is remarkable that so many of the winners are Dutch. Five of the 18 winners of 2011 are from The Netherlands and both the jury and the audience have awarded Dutch photographers. It confirms the Dutch reputation for excellent portrait photographers such as Paul Huf and Anton Corbijn. In 2010, all three prizes in the World Press Photo Portraits category went to Dutch photographers.

Several well-known Dutch figures have decorated a donation box for Pride Photo Award. The boxes were displayed at the exhibition venue, Postjesweg 1 in Amsterdam. You are welcome to bid on te boxes by sending an e-mail to our mailbox: info [at] pridephotoaward.org. The proceeds will go towards Pride Photo Award 2012. You can see below which boxes have been sold and which are still available for you to call your own.

Pride Photo Award is very grateful to the people who have taken the time to support us by decorating a box:

Dolly Bellefleur

Gerard Spong

Henk Krol

Marc-Marie Huijbregts

Nelly Frijda

Sara Kroos

Willeke Alberti

Download here the Pride Photo award flyer 2011!

Make a photo of yourself holding the flyer and post it to our Facebook page.

Flyer Pride Photo Award 2011: Flyer PPA 2011

Support us and support the LGBT Community.