National Press Photographers Association opens awards to camera phone photos

The National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) is enabling amateur photographers and citizen journalists with photos from camera phones to enter The Best of Photojournalism 2006 contest (see below).

Keith Jenkins, picture editor for The Washington Post, was nice enough to send me an e-mail saying that the contest includes a category for "Photo Blogs" from amateur photographers.  He wrote that the new category was sparked by the great photos on Flickr.

The contest Web site says Photo Blogs were added "recognizing the long standing connection between the amateur and professional photographic communities and how today, technology and the web are influencing both."

Details

The Photo Blog category is divided into three other categories:  Portraits, Festivals and Events, and Photojournalism.  Contestants may enter a maximum of 30 photos (one "set") for each of the three categories.

Describing the Photo Blog category, the Web site says, "Personal photo sites of amateur photographers that carry on in the tradition of Jacques-Henri Lartigue, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Dr. Erich Salomon of using photography to document our personal lives."

The deadline for entering — that must be done online — is February 10.

Camera phone photos

I asked Keith whether it would make any sense for camera phone photos -- typically not very good quality -- to be entered in the Photo Blog category.  After all, winners of the photo awards aren’t known for submitting images with low resolution, poor white balance, etc.

He replied via e-mail that the awards emphasize the content of the photos, such as, he said, the London terrorist bombings.

So, if you think your camera photos are award-winners, send them in.  It’s free.

Comments

[steve]

I'm doing an investigation in a custody dispute. The father tried to prove his point by showing me a photo on his cell phone with a date on it.

My question is: can the date be manipulated? IE could he have changed the date on the photo?

Thanks