Bored Panda reached out to the author of the post with some questions regarding the competition. Given how many pictures were received (a total of over 2000) we were wondering how the last 18 images were selected.
"The photos have been selected by the international jury: Valentina Niño (COLOMBIA), Yuan Man (CHINA), Daniela Díaz Burgos (MEXICO). Only pictures with two or more preferences have been awarded. The complete collection of round 28 is made up of 95 pictures, as you can see here."
FbD awards is a rather big competition that mostly focuses on the wedding genre of photography. We asked Martino (Mario), the author of the post, to tell us a little bit more about the goal of the contest.
"The main goal of FdB photo awards is to recognize and promote the best, most talented photographers. We have run this award since 2015 and every year we publish a book with all the winning photos. We also have more than 5000€ in prizes for the photographers who receive more awarded photos each year."
As most of us have noticed, wedding photography is a rather big thing. We asked Mario to tell us if he had noticed any trends rising within the genre, "Wedding photography will surely continue to be popular, since it is the only occasion when ordinary people hire a photographer to document a day in their lives. Wedding photography has many different trends depending on the country, culture, and personal taste. At the moment in our association, we can find many photographers who are working in a documentary style, but also, we can see many others creating incredible portraits using light and location to give the 'wow' effect.
In recent years we have seen a huge improvement in pictures in general thanks to editing programs that give the photographer the power to tweak and correct any little mistake. Some of those programs now use artificial intelligence to achieve incredible results in tasks such as selecting the main subject or the sky of an image."
As with any competition, it's safe to say, that organizing a contest on this scale is not only difficult but can be challenging as well. "The challenges organizing a contest like this are mainly related to trust. All of the processes must be completely transparent and you must avoid any mistakes, otherwise, photographers will not keep participating. Also, it is very important to select judges who are considered a reference in the field. We are very proud of the judges we have had in the last 7 years."
FbD wedding photography contest is a reoccurring competition. We asked Mario to tell us what keeps him motivated and inspired to keep going year after year.
"I am a wedding photographer myself and I really like to see how other colleagues can create incredible images. All of the photos are always telling us two stories: the one of the couple, bride and groom, and on the other side of the lens, it also tells a little bit about the photographer. So it is nice to see how the style of an artist grows with time and how their photos can become recognizable through time.
Also, it is very interesting to see photos of weddings all around the world with different traditions. Recently we have had some Chinese photographers sending images that are really different from what we are used to."
Lastly, we were curious to find out if behind the scenes there were any photos that were really liked by either Mario or the judges, and here's what he told us, "Sometimes there are images I liked but they did not reach the awarded collection… this can happen! My evaluation is not important, I always respect the Judges.
However, there are always images selected by only one of the judges that do not make it to the winning set. Evaluation is always subjective, so we encourage photographers who did not win to send photos again in the next round to have another chance with the new judges."
#12 "Oh, My God.... We Are Lost In This Illusion!" By Santiago Moldes
#18 "Darling, I Would Like A Typical American-Indian Wedding!" By Jose Taboada
