It's the football song that's sung to taunt the opposing team's fans after their team starts loosing and they go very silent in the stadium…"You only sing when you're winning, sing when your winning, sing when your winning". Thats how photo awards are these days. In the past week I have

The first are the Spider Awards which a photographer asked me about as he was thinking of entering. I think there is a fee or something, or at least of course the expense and effort of sending your entry. I don't know much about them but they keep cropping up in places. Does that mean they are now established and valid? Apparently I am listed as one of the judges from a previous year. I kinda remember looking at some web pages and selecting favorites. it was more out of interest than making any critical choices. > I should have paid more attention and been more responsible… next time.

The second instance this week has been the Lucie awards. Apparently the "Hollywood glam 'Osca.. cant bring myself to say it" of the photo awards calendar. Found out Friday that Foto8 was nominated alongside the likes of PDN, Aperture, Zoom and Nueva Luz for "Best Photography Magazine". Does that mean we are a "Lucie Nominated magazine" on all our big advert posters now on buses we can write that…people will know what we mean right?? My first impression was grumpiness (it comes naturally) who the hell are they, what with all those black tie bods in the pics on their site from last year surely they could have thought to at least tell us we are nominated. then… PDN MMMmm aren't they also the sponsors of the event… oh right its one of those gettyesque things where its sponsored entered and won by the outfit that virtually owns the ceremony. > Well to cut that story short, its probably not like that and anyway we lost…so no singing here. But actually despite losing to the eminent Aperture it is nice to be nominated and in good company. (ahh diplomacy wins the day)

The Third instance was the Sony "World's Biggest, Most important, Best, Red carpet 'a la cannes film festival', New inaugural award" next year which i got a press pack for out of the blue yesterday. Whats that all about? Who are the beneficiaries of this one I wonder. I even only know its sony because thats basically the biggest word and most understandable way of remembering the event. (Good marketing, mucho dinero) > I'll do some more snooping…any info/gossip/endorsements or dirt appreciate.

And finally (4) the UK Magazine Design Awards to which I and eight of us are going to on Thursday to see if we are "The Best designed Consumer magazine under 40,000 (we were last year apparently 🙂 I did haggle the organisers down for the ticket price, we're a budget operation you know, and sponsorship for the evening is by Campari 🙁 that means its buying the drinks at the bar so we can really have a good night out together. Its like the advert on TV for one of those credit cards… "The cost of football ticket for your team…£100, The cost of a new windcreen wipers for the car…£50. The cost of telling the people you work with that they are the best in the business and you love and treasure them…£Priceless.

So like I said. Awards I think there are too many and I'm not sure what half of them are about…but when you get a sniff at winning it seems worth it I guess, lets hope we're still singing after Thursday night. xx j