2021 Photo competition in conjunction with Stevenage Photographic Society

This year Stevenage Photographic Society, who regularly provide photos on public display at part of the Festival, are running a public competition and the Festival is supporting by stumping up the prize money. There are two classes of entry - Adult and Youth (under 18). The competition will be open until the end of the day of the 25th June.

Competition theme - Stevenage Unlocked

This competition isn't aimed at professional photographers and is an open competition reflecting the changes and views seen in the Stevenage area during the lockdown. Digital Camera or photos from your phone are fine.

All you NEED to be able to do is to upload digital images on to Facebook in the relevant album if you want to enter the competition.

As ever there are rules governing the sorts of photos and permissions required of the photographers and their subjects, for details see below - here. In short you can include people providing you can either prove you have their permission or if they are indistinguishable from the photograph.

Voting

This is even simpler. Visit the Facebook album page in either the Adult or Youth catgories (using the links above), meander through the images and "Like" whichever images you prefer. At the end of the competition (midnight on the 18th June) the top 30 photos with the largest number of likes in each category will (eventually) be displayed on the Photographic society and Festival websites. Winners and commended photos will be selected from the 30 photos in each category.

Display

The 30 finalists will displayed on the Photography and Festival websites annotated with marking showing which photos won or were highly commended.

 

Rules

1.	Photographs can be of any subject matter as long as they were taken in or around the Stevenage area between March 2020 to 18th June 2021.
2.	Photographs must have been taken by the entrant.
3.	Maximum of 5 entries per person.
4.	As far as is reasonably practicable, photographs must not include distinguishable faces of any people, unless the photographer has the prior permission from all those appearing in the image (or where the image shows any person under 18, the consent of their parent/guardian) for use as described on this page, and will indemnify the organisers of this competition against any claims made by third parties in respect of such infringement.
5.	Photographs must be of a suitable nature to be publicly shared (any photos deemed unsuitable will be removed).
6.	There are 2 categories for entry: Adult class and Youth class (under 18’s).
7.	Each entry may include a title for the image in the description.
8.	Enter your images directly to the Facebook page Album for either Adult class or Youth class (use links above to access page directly).
9.	Closing date for entries is midnight on Friday 25th June 2021.
10.	Entering the competition grants certain rights to the Festival and Photographic Society and certain responsibilities for the photographer. See Rights section below.

Things to note:

Please note if you are using a phone you may not be able to add directly from these links. You will need to go to the top, Select "Albums" and then Select the relevant Album.

Judging and Prizes

Entries will be ‘voted on’ by the public, by adding ‘likes’.

The 30 images with the most ‘votes’ will be selected as the finalists and will be shown in an online exhibition on a Stevenage Photographic Society website Gallery page and a Stevenage Festival of Arts website gallery page (links will be added to this page when those pages go "live").

The top 30 finalist images will be judged by an appointed panel comprising members of Stevenage Photographic Society and Stevenage Festival committee.

The panel will determine the top 3 and Highly Commended images from each category and these will be highlighted in the online galleries.

The photographer of the winning image from each category will receive a prize of £100 (kindly donated by the Stevenage Festival of Arts).

Rights

The photographer retains the copyright of submitted images.

The entrant is responsible for any claim made by a third party relating to the image.

Entrants agree to grant permission for free use of the image on the online and social media sites relating to this competition, news organisations and publications reporting on the event.

Images may be edited, cropped, re-sized if required for listed publications.

The top 30 finalist images will be displayed in exhibition and online galleries, including the photographer’s name. By consent, the entrant/legal guardian understands and declares:

1. Consent is given by own free will;
2. Any personal information will be held for the duration of the competition and exhibition only;
3. Entrants may exercise their right to withdraw their entry at any stage.

We look forward to seeing your entries and good luck to everyone!