Photography competitions present an exceptional opportunity for photographers to showcase their work to global audiences, strengthen their portfolios, and advance their careers. However, many photographers feel intimidated by award-winning images, believing they need exotic locations, professional models, or months of travel to create competitive work. German architectural photographer and Hasselblad Master Albrecht Voss challenges this assumption, demonstrating that success in prestigious competitions like the Sony World Photography Awards and International Photography Awards can be achieved much closer to home.
Voss has identified five essential strategies that helped his work stand out in international competitions, sharing these insights through his educational content and workshops. His approach emphasizes personal connection over spectacular locations, proving that compelling photography begins with genuine fascination rather than expensive equipment or remote destinations.
The first strategy involves finding a topic that genuinely captivates the photographer's interest. Voss explains that great photography starts with ideas that create personal connections, as only passionate engagement with subjects can produce images that emotionally resonate with viewers. His own breakthrough came through observing wind turbines across Germany's landscape, initially noticing them as majestic machines turning silently on the horizon. Over time, he recognized their potential as powerful symbols representing technology, sustainability, and environmental change.
This realization led to extensive research, with Voss mapping locations of the largest wind farms in his region and observing them under various lighting and weather conditions. He emphasizes that this process involved more than aesthetic considerations, requiring deep understanding of the subject's presence, impact, and surrounding environment. Photographers can apply this approach by identifying topics that have long fascinated them, researching specific locations and situations related to these subjects, and investing the time and patience that genuine interest naturally generates.
The second strategy focuses on developing clear visual concepts from initial ideas. Voss discovered that having a theme alone wasn't sufficient; successful competition entries require guiding visions that unify entire series. His wind turbine project gained direction during a chance encounter with frozen winter landscapes covered in fog, where turbines emerged like sculptures. This moment defined his series' focus on reduction, stillness, and sculptural presence.
Photographers can implement this strategy by choosing specific moods, weather conditions, or times of day that make their subjects unique, committing to visual ideas like minimalism or dramatic contrasts, and allowing projects to evolve until consistent visual languages emerge. Competition juries seek coherent concepts rather than collections of randomly appealing shots, making clear artistic vision essential for standing out among entries.
The third strategy emphasizes developing recognizable styles and maintaining consistency. Voss credits fine art photographer Bastiaan Woudt as inspiration, whose minimal, sculptural black-and-white work initially seemed unrelated to Voss's colorful architectural landscapes. However, during a foggy morning at a wind farm, Voss realized he could translate Woudt's clarity into his own photographic world.
Style development involves making decisive choices about editing approaches, such as black-and-white processing, muted color palettes, or bold contrasts. Photographers should limit their tools by selecting consistent focal lengths, aspect ratios, and formats while using repetition of forms, lighting, or composition to create coherence. This consistency makes series appear intentional and professional, demonstrating the mastery that competition juries recognize and reward.
The fourth strategy requires thinking in series rather than focusing on individual images. Voss emphasizes that competitions are won with series that tell complete stories, not single strong photographs. When editing his wind turbine project, he reduced hundreds of files to five core images supported by secondary shots that added rhythm without repetition. The most challenging aspect involved abandoning personal favorites that didn't serve the overall series, but this discipline significantly strengthened the final selection.
Effective series development involves narrowing selections to five to ten key images that work both individually and collectively, balancing variety with coherence so each picture contributes something new to the narrative. External feedback from trusted photographers, curators, or friends proves invaluable, as does experimenting with different sequences and formats before finalizing submissions. Successful series become greater than the sum of their parts, demonstrating artistic thinking and narrative construction abilities.
The fifth strategy involves telling compelling stories behind the photographs. Many photographers underestimate this crucial element, but competitions typically require more than images alone, requesting series titles, artist statements, and sometimes individual captions. This component offers opportunities to distinguish submissions from competitors by taking time to reflect on project triggers, personal significance of subjects, and intended viewer emotions.
Writing down these reflections and refining them into personal, clear statements adds memorable dimensions to submissions. Even titles can contribute thematic, poetic, or playful elements that help work stand out long after juries move to subsequent entries. Voss also recommends carefully examining competition categories, noting that landscape and portrait sections are typically overcrowded while architecture, sustainability, or still life categories may offer better chances for appropriate work.
Voss's approach culminated in his award-winning series "Eternal Echoes," which evolved from casual walks near wind farms into internationally recognized work featured in exhibitions worldwide. His success demonstrates that photographers don't need large teams, massive budgets, or exotic destinations to create competition-winning work. Instead, success requires curiosity, focus, and courage to explore subjects deeply.
These five strategies represent a comprehensive approach to competition photography that emphasizes authentic personal connection over superficial spectacle. By starting with genuinely fascinating themes, developing clear visual concepts, maintaining consistent styles, thinking in series, and crafting compelling narratives, photographers can create work that stands out in competitive fields. Voss's methodology proves that meaningful photographic success often begins in photographers' own backyards, requiring dedication and vision rather than extensive travel or expensive equipment.
