Judging albums for awards

I’ve gathered enough gongs now to qualify for an opinion on album design.

Last week I was a judge for the Australian Professional Photography Awards at PMA in Melbourne.

This was an honour I shared with the lovely Jo Grams, Jerry Ghionis, Jackie Chan, Yervant and other luminaries.

Several things became apparent:

1) Some authors treated the album as a set of individual prints, mixing black and whites with colours, verticals with horizontals, with blatant disregard for the influence of those images on each other.

2) Some authors were hypnotised by the ability to apply a filter to create a look … This did not, however, work so well on the judges, who were looking for quality imagery, design, and storytelling.

3) Ever read a book where things got overly complicated and you just lost interest? This was another problem we encountered.

4) Sometimes the classic story was simply too long. The judging criteria allowed for up to 50 pages … 50 is great for the bride and groom, but for the judges it was easy to lose interest when points 1, 2, and 3 were in play.

If I was to advise anybody on entering albums for awards, my advice would be:

Impress the judges with your keen eye before your photoshop skills.

Create a treasure not a billboard.

Had you done all of these things you would have had my vote.

Cheers

Johannes

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