APOY not for film users

When Martin Norden ( Inbox, AP 20 October) asked why there were so few APOY entries, Nigel replied saying that to encourage more Photocrowd members to buy AP, a free entry code was printed inside the magazine. Unless this [code] is shoved right in your face this won’t happen. In my experience, people are more attracted to the photo cover and rarely read advertised content. And a free entry code well inside the magazine is easily missed, which defeats the whole objective.

I’ve never entered APOY because it’s for digital images. Many photographers still use film and miss out on the opportunities. Instead, I’ve submitted my photos to international exhibitions, pitching against professionals as well as amateurs. Not only have I won gold medals but have had the great pleasure of seeing my work in the exhibitions’ magazines. AP is a brilliant magazine and I’ll always read it, but APOY needs to open up to film users and cut out the unnecessary red tape. Peter Carey APOY is definitely open to film users as long as the photo is scanned and submitted digitally. We used to accept prints and slides until two years ago, by which point only about 3% of entries were entered this way. Managing them is a vastly more time- consuming process than that for digital entries. Today, there is zero possibility of prints or slides (that are not scanned and submitted digitally) being accepted for APOY. As for the entry code, it was printed prominently in Inbox in every issue. Perhaps next year we’ll look at ways to flag it up better – Nigel Atherton, Editor