Here at I SHOT IT HQ we are often taken by surprise by the phenomenon we have created. Never more so than by our Black and White Competition. What started as a one-off to celebrate the Leica M Monochrom has become our most prestigious Competition attracting an enormous world-wide entry.
With such a large entry and huge prize, the results always create discussion - photography is an art form and aside from the technical aspects; subject matter, treatment and post-processing are always going to be a subjective matter. This is why our judging panel take their time to agree a final list of winners of the First Prize and the Marks of Excellence and why we know that not everyone in the world will always agree with them! Which brings us to the mechanics of the competition.
The very clever software behind the I SHOT IT website means that when a photo is entered, all of the information about the photo is hidden - EXIF data about exposure, equipment etc. cannot be viewed. What's more, whilst the admin department can see the photographer's account to sort payment details and emails etc. the judging panel sees nothing but the image. Photos are judged purely as they appear in the website view to the world.
Why do we do this? Our judges must be free from bias. They cannot be influenced by us in any way. Period. We are are a US company, that's the law in the US. We have taken this several steps further by ensuring there is no bias towards a manufacturer, photographer, medium (scanned film images are acceptable entries, just as those from mobile phone cameras too) - if it's a photo, if it's yours and if it can be uploaded then it can be judged on a completely level playing field with all of the others.
Which means that if there is a truly great image in the competition, it will stand out on its own merits alone. Our winners in all of the competitions we have held to date have been amateurs, semi-professionals and professionals - their photos have been taken with the latest equipment or with whatever inexpensive camera they had to hand.
We are very proud therefore to have created an environment where a truly great image like our latest Black and White Competition winner could rise to the surface entirely on its own merits, where the photographer, despite being an award-winner already, enjoyed competing in the anonymity of an I SHOT IT contest.