Amateur or pro?

Now that AP is using Photo-crowd as its new platform to enter APOY, I have a few concerns. Are some of the entrants being as honest as they should be with regards to their professional status, and are AP checking this? When a £1,000 carrot is dangled in front of some people it may tempt them to not be so honest despite ticking the box. I have been looking at a number of the pictures entered and made a few background checks myself, and I’m suspicious about a few as they advertise themselves as professional photographers on other websites and their own. Also, I don’t think the crowd vote should be included in the overall winner. D, via email This has always been a difficult issue to police because the photographic landscape is more complex than the simple binary pro/amateur status. There are many photographers earning some income from photography who have a day job, and others who call themselves pro’s for the kudos and who have no other job, but who actually don’t earn enough to live on, and rely on other people or sources of income. We will be checking up on the winner of each round as much as possible – Nigel Atherton, editor