The Media Arts Department of Lane Community College announced on May 19 the winner of its online photo challenge. The department’s Instagram presence, known as M.A.D.Social, made a post declaring Austin Dillon (@amnesiaamerican) won the challenge.
The prize: a Fujifilm Instax Square SQ6 camera. The challenge itself was titled “Fluidity/Motion”. Entrants had to generate still images that best fit this theme in a way that judges would find compelling.
Dillon’s black and white scanned film depicts a person in the foreground amongst the forces of nature. A grand waterfall dwarfs the onlooker standing on a mound of rocky earth. The photo’s overall aesthetic is grainy yet punchy with contrast. A sliver of light grazes the bottom edge, adding character to the image, while not detracting from the primary focus.
LCC’s Media Arts Department hosts photo challenges like Fluidity/Motion regularly. The Torch reached out to the M.A.D.Social Instagram account with questions to gain further insight on how these routine challenges work.
How long have these competitions been around?
Our mid-term photo challenges have been an ongoing tradition since the inception of MAD Social back in the Fall of 2019. The first challenge had a “spooky” theme.
What social media platforms is this competition available through?
We primarily collect submissions by having people tag us on Instagram, however, we try to raise awareness of these challenges by also promoting them on Facebook and through campus publications like the Titan Times and The Torch. Additionally, we have the help of professors like Jon Meyers and Jefferson Goolsby who are awesome and encourage their photography students to submit to us.
What changes have occurred since the pandemic began?
A lot has changed, not only with our photo challenges but it’s also affected the content we’re able to produce and how we interact with our audience. After the pandemic hit, Georgia Harter, the wonderful person who created and ran MAD Social for its first two terms, was laid off. Then the student workers all left and the whole thing was just in ruin.
With regards to our photo challenges, before COVID hit, we’d post flyers around campus and chat people up at equipment checkout; while we still have some, albeit limited, opportunity to do the latter, we’re really grateful to be able to lean into our digital community who engage with our posts and help us get the word out.
What sort of prizes are typically given away to winners? What’s the most expensive or biggest?
Whenever it comes time to pick out a photo prize we like to ask ourselves, “What would we want?” In addition to generating a little friendly competition, the goal behind our photo prizes is to inspire creativity and encourage people to continue making imagery long after the challenge is over. We hope to give them something that’s practical for photography, but also fun to play around and experiment with. In the past, we’ve given away lighting kits, a green screen, a vintage Polaroid camera, and fancy photography prisms. This term’s winner will get an Instax SQ6.
Who decides the winner? What is their process?
It can vary, but last winter we had the help of two guest judges who are professional photographers in the area. So we thought it would be a unique and exciting opportunity for our followers to get their work in front of people who are currently working in the industry. When left to our own devices, we approach judging by first looking at how the theme was incorporated; then we assess the application of photographic skills such as attention to lighting, composition, processing, creativity, etc. We just sort of go back and forth until we reach a consensus as a team.
What are the three most common mistakes made by entrants?
The biggest mistake is when people enter less than our max of three photos or maybe they don’t submit anything at all because they aren’t sure whether or not their work fits the prompt or they worry that it’s not “good enough.”
We’d rather see a wide range of images than have someone hesitate and miss out. To badly quote Andy Warhol, “…just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.” Another thing that we’ve had happen is people will tag us in their entries, but due to their privacy settings, it doesn’t show up in our tagged images feed. If you’re not seeing your image in our tagged images feed, the best course of action is to shoot us a message and check-in.
How does MAD come up with contest ideas? Have you ever had to recycle a past one?
It varies! Last term our team came up with three ideas and then we had an Instagram poll where our followers voted on which idea they liked best. This term we asked our followers for ideas, then held a couple of rounds of voting to determine the theme. (I’m still sad that “Elbows” didn’t win). We’re a little less than two years old and have only had six of these challenges so far so we have yet to recycle a past idea!
Who is eligible to enter these competitions?
Everyone! We encourage participation from the entire art community, whether you’re a student or not.
What is your best advice to future entrants?
One of the major purposes of these photo challenges, especially now in COVID-19 times, is to promote sharing of ideas and creativity within our community. With that in mind, we want to encourage contestants to look at the work of other people who are submitting and comment on it if you think they did something cool or ask them questions if you’re curious about their process. People are generally excited to talk about their work and these type of exchanges can lead to any number of opportunities like new collaborations, resource sharing, creative inspiration, and even deep friendships.
