© David Gardner Short-listed in the inaugural theme "A Modern Life" whose series Marking Our Place was published in aCurator around this time last year.
Life-Framer hit my radar a couple of months ago and I remember emailing my old man: "Interesting model?" Now they have held their first monthly theme and announced winners, and are looking for entries for the next. Here's the deal:
1. Take some photos for each monthly theme
2. Upload them and pay (1 image = $10, up to 3 = $20, up to 5 = $30)
3. We narrow it down to our 10 favourites each month, from which a special-guest judge picks their winner and runner up
4. You get some great monthly prizes and exposure
5. We exhibit all of the winners and runners up in a special end-of-series exhibition in London
Life Framer is crowd sourced; "both the content and the funding to run an exhibition at the end in a London gallery, theprintspace. We hope it's a little different from the myriad of other awards that are out there, and is of real value to photographers."
Although this is judged by photographers, and I do worry about photographers being stuck in a feedback loop, I do think there is value in the online and offline exposure and, well, a bit of cash, which some competitions don't offer and which is always nice. There's no rights grabbing, they'll sell prints for you without a commission if you're in the exhibition - it seems like a straight-up, fairly appealing arrangement.
© Olivia Bee, upcoming judge