Crowdsourced photography through camera club competitions

We’ve already seen the crowdsourcing approach brought to commercial photography through customAdArt, but recently we came across an Irish effort that adds a slightly different twist. Picturk is an online photography site that aims to gather its images through local camera club competitions. Picturk bills itself as a “community-driven platform where digital photographers meet consumers of digital imagery.” Toward that end, camera clubs can use the site to run online competitions, giving members a way to get exposure for their photos. Designers, marketers and art directors looking for the perfect image, meanwhile, can post a brief on Picturk that describes what it is they’re looking for. Currently featured on the site, for example, is a competition for service design firm Hygge — a sister company to Picturk itself — seeking imagery for a rebranding effort. The competition is offering prizes for winning entries in the form of vouchers at Dublin’s Conns Cameras. Just last month Picturk won NDRC’s Launch Pad “LiftOff” Competition. Once it’s fully up and running, camera clubs will pay a subscription fee to operate their competitions through the site, while designers will fund prizes, a portion of which will go to Picturk. Photographers will retain ownership of their images. Picturk aims to operate about 30,000 competitions per year. It should be noted that crowdsourcing artistic work has been nothing if not controversial, as we’ve seen illustrated vividly in the field of graphic design. Nevertheless, the involvement of amateur camera clubs seems to add a new spin on the practice. One to try out, emulate locally or otherwise get involved in? (Related: Crowdsourcing site actively manages the design process — ‘Elite’ crowdsourcing service taps an invitation-only crowd.) Spotted by: Pamela Haskell