Photographer of the Year Award Winner

So a little (HUGE) thing happened to me this year: in January I was presented with the NAPCP Photographer of the Year Award for 2022 at the Elevate conference in Nashville, TN. This incredible moment was then followed by having a billboard with my photos in Times Square, NY a couple months later. I was SO grateful to be able to see the billboard in person. And as icing on the cake, Inspired magazine included my work in a multi-page feature.

Setting The Goal

At the start of 2022 I did my annual vision board exercise but with one little variation. That year, I printed out a picture of the Photographer of the Year billboard in Times Square and overlaid one of my own photos and a picture of myself on the billboard. And then I quietly put energy and time into achieving that goal.  

Winning this award has been a goal for many years. The big differences for me last year were putting it on my vision board and throwing everything I had into the process. Each competition I entered way more images than ever before, going through my own archives to see if there were images I had overlooked, and putting the time into participating in the photography community.

Interestingly, while the image isn’t the same, the high school senior in the photo on my vision board is the same girl the winning photo they put on my physical award plaque.

I felt like an impostor!

If you look closely at my vision board, you will also see something about Overcoming Impostor Syndrome. I vaguely recall that the reason I had it on there was about my artwork, not about my photography. But you guys, when I received the POY award, I discovered that my Impostor Syndrome is all over me. Even though I wanted the POY award and worked hard to achieve the goal, winning it just felt unreal. I felt like a fake. I felt like crying all the time. I was excited to share the news with my friends and family, but I also felt strangely secretive about it. Here we are, nearly five months after the announcement and I’m just writing this blog post. I kept making up reasons and roadblocks that needed to be resolved before I could make an announcement: I have to lose weight, I need a new logo, my website needs updating.

I’m much better now, but the feeling isn’t completely resolved. I do feel altered, in a positive way, and feel more confident in my voice and expertise. Receiving the recognition, the outside stamp of approval has been a balm on my deepest, darkest inner fears and hurts. But so much…junk came up for me when I won the award. Stuff I didn’t even know was down there. It really surprised me!

I recently read a quote from a photographer who talked about being unapologetically confident that all your work is your best work every time. It really resonated with me. I am a perfectionist, fearful of rejection, and very self-judgemental. I have decided to adopt that perspective and allow my belief in my creativity and artistry to run the day.

On a more positive side, one of the most extraordinary things that happened with the Photographer of the Year award was to hear from so many colleagues. Having my peers tell me they “knew” it would be me this year or that they had assumed I had already won or that I really deserved the award was so mind bending and gratifying. I know people just say that kind of stuff, but it was incredibly heartwarming to hear it anyhow. I am so grateful for the people in my photography community.

Why Photography Competitions?

I’ve been entering photography competitions for about 8 or 9 years now. In the beginning, I entered as a combination of my own ego wanting validation for work that I thought was ahhhhmazing (wink), and wanting an outside stamp of credibility for my business. I received a merit award the very first competition I entered, and I think I got a little bit hooked. Both on receiving recognition, but primarily on the challenge.

For me, the competitions were less about other photographers or about the specific accolades. It wasn’t even about the specific works. I was in competition with MYSELF. I wanted more, I wanted to be better than myself, than my last award or win. And NOT winning first place or second place made me want to keep trying. Yes, it was discouraging and demoralizing sometimes, but I kept going back and trying again and again.

Over the years I competed in multiple competitions through probably a 5-10 different photography organizations, feeding my competitive ego, looking for recognition, and LEARNING. A huge part of the process was  spending a ton of time studying winning images, learning about competition scoring, judging, and how images are evaluated. All that knowledge, watching judging at WPPI for years, talking with other photographers, discussing our portfolios, whining and sharing our discouragement over losses when we thought the work was phenomenal, it made me a better photographer.

My work is by no means perfect. It isn’t even the best. But to borrow from that other photographer, it’s the best of what I like, the way I like it, and it is made deliberately and thoughtfully. As an artist, I find a lot of good stuff in the unknown and I enjoy spontaneity. But my confidence in being able to handle spontaneous moments and surprises has vastly improved since I began entering photography competitions. I am better for them.

A few cautions on photography competitions

Participating in photography competitions can also have negative impacts. There can be a some risk in them, beyond mental turmoil, especially when you focus on a particular organization. Several of the larger competitions, I’m thinking PPA and WPPI and a few others, have a set of rigid judging criteria. To meet them, you must essentially create work that fits a specific recipe. The result, in my opinion, is that the work starts to look overly staged, over-produced, and lifeless. The work has little energy, and almost no emotion. The more deeply you become fixated on winning within those hallowed halls, the more entrenched you can become in the stylistic requirements of winning in those arenas. I find it a grave danger to organic creativity because your “creativity” is forced to be within the taste and constraints of someone other than yourself. I take no issue with those who choose to work in those spaces, but I don’t personally wish to become an artist whose work ever looks like the style those organizations are promoting.  I started down that path for about a year and then realized I was making work that wasn’t my visual voice and not what I want to be as a creative.

My thoughts for photographers: competitions can be a great tool for advancing your own work, creativity, and skills. Participating regularly means you are looking at your work with a critical eye, your inner judge, in a way that you don’t usually see your client work. You are also working to make images that are creative, impactful, and technically proficient. Just the act of preparing for competition means you are taking your work to another level. But competitions can also be hazardous to your heart, to your confidence, or even to your own vision. Look carefully at not only the organizations and judges of photography competitions you want to enter, also look at the winning images in the galleries. Do they have things in common? Do you like what you see? Do the visual values you see represented in the winning images align with your own creative voice? You are allowed to be choosy about which competitions help move you toward your own personal goals.

Press Release for Photographer of the Year

What follows is a copy of the press release from NAPCP:

(April 11, 2023) - The National Association of Portrait & Child Photographers (NAPCP) is thrilled to announce our 2022 Photographer of the Year, Willy Wilson of Life Unstill Photography! Our team was so happy to be able to give her this award in person at the Elevate Summit in Nashville, TN!

Willy joins a long line of talented photographers who hold this distinguished title. She displays mastery, creativity, and versatility in her work while inspiring us to be better as professional photographers. We value her leadership within our community, so we are pleased that she earned the top spot - the most distinguished title to have in NAPCP.

In addition to being a recipient of multiple awards and recognitions in NAPCP's image competitions this past year, Willy is awarded as NAPCP Photographer of the Year for the following:

• Displaying a singular creative vision that inspires the NAPCP member community

• Professional integrity

• Consistently producing technically robust, magnificent work

• Community involvement

• All-encompassing representation of the organization

As industry buzz around, and participation in, our elite competitions grows, the NAPCP panel of of photography experts and luminaries critiqued thousands of image submissions for creativity, impact, composition, and technical merit.