The award winning photographer is always better, right?

The photographer has won awards. They must be better than those who have not.

Awards are awesome and quite rare in photography. Being acknowledged, or better yet, being voted “the best” of anything is quite an achievement and definitely something to be proud of and certainly worth using to promote yourself.

The thing to keep in mind about awards is their source and how or why they were awarded.

  • Is there a relationship between the presenter and the recipient?
  • Were votes cast? If so, how many and who cast them?
  • Is it a statistically significant number for whatever the award is for?
  • And how did the names get on the ballot to begin with? Did everyone who deserved to be on the list get on it?

Not all awards are equal and it’s good to know a thing or two about the process before simply assuming that an award is truly significant or “the best” of anything is truly an accurate assessment.

The photographer highlights their years of experience.
The photographer who highlights their "professional" equipment.