National Geographic emailed me today. Nice, I’ve never had an email from them before. But it was to tell me that Eugene Richards has won their 2007 Grant for Photography, and to tell me the names of the seven other finalists. Good names all of them, majority of them instantly recognisable, none of them mine. But the good news is that I did make it into the top 145 entrants.

Bad news is there were only 145 entrants. And this surprises me, National Geographic, one of the holy grails of editorial work/publishing, and they offer to give out $50,000 USD to a photographer to undertake a project of their choosing….and there are only 145 entrants from all over the world? Do all these photographers who post on email forums, and Lightstalkers.org etc, complaining and whining about no work, no assignments, no money, wanting to travel, wishing to be published, wishing to be famous…do they not want to try and win such an award? I appreciate there is a point when you know your strengths, your weaknesses, and your realistic chances of winning such a prize as the National Geographic Award, but come on, if you don’t buy a ticket you won’t win the raffle. And it was free to enter.

Many years I ago I won 5,000 of Her Majesty’s finest sterling pounds, given to me as winner of the Felix Man Memorial Award, the money was donated by Liselotte Man, wife of the late Felix H. Man. It was a great award, helped me start out in my career, got me publicity, enabled me to travel in Albania for two months filling my head with memories and my binders with negatives, got me a one man show at the Museum of Photography, Film and Television in England. It was a bi-annual award, and sadly I was ever the only winner. The award was discontinued two years later as Liselotte Man and the Museum, felt that there were not sufficient entries and that the entries they received were not of sufficient quality. Incredible. Someone is giving money away, photographers have a great tendency to complain about how things are hard etc. Get a grip. I have a friend in NY applies for any awards going, has won many, all prestigious, has financed many years of great documentary work, he always encourages me to enter anything , as “you just don’t know”. These awards are sometimes a bit of a lottery, sometimes you just don’t know who will win, sometimes it is also a bit predictable, but if you don’t enter there is one certainty. You won’t win.

But why should I complain, the flip side of a low number of entries means better odds for me winning.