Photo contest judges raise alarm: “We didn’t judge anything”

PetaPixel:

There’s something strange going on with the International Photographer of the Year (IPOTY) photo contest. 11 of the 14 photographers listed as judges for the IPOTY 2017 contest say they weren’t asked to judge a single thing before the winners were announced in February (and the other 3 couldn’t be contacted).

IPOTY was founded in 2015 and is a “pay to play” type of competition. The website states that photographers need to pay between $15 to $30 (depending on photographer status and entry date).

On March 3rd, 9 of the 14 judges on the list penned a letter to PetaPixel and other publications, sharing “concerns” regarding the competition. Many of the judges had no idea they were listed as judges, and none of the judges actually judged anything — the winners were selected entirely without the jury’s knowledge or consent.

Another reason to be wary of “photo contests” in general and absolutely avoid paid contests.