Photo contest in Bulgaria

I’m excited to see more and more international photo contests. This one, however, strikes me as a little strange. The fees for participation are pretty high, but the english terms and conditions state that the contest organizers (and sponsors, presumably) will pay for the contest’s preparation and exhibition. There doesn’t appear to be any prize money, either. What’s the fee for then?

The terms and conditions also don’t explicitly state the usage and licensing of the photos that are entered or win beyond “The awarded pieces of work will be retained in the stock of the competition THEWORLDAROUNDUS and are applied for its promotion.” Been a while since I’ve thought about various uses of “and” and I’m not a lawyer, but it seems like that could mean that the pictures are both going to be used as stock and also used as promotion for the contest, rather than used as stock to promote the competition. The ambiguity makes me nervous. That the sponsors are travel-related and that the money should be sent to “Bultravel Angels” makes me doubly nervous. In the US, at least, many travel companies and airlines use competitions as a way to get images for ad campaigns and their magazines without proper payment.

Not saying that’s the case with this one, but I think it’s worthwhile to keep in mind, especially as regards a brand new and unproven photo contest.

Contests terms and conditions in English at http://tinyurl.com/32q6s8

Contest participation fees at http://tinyurl.com/2uuoxj

Hi Scott, I am just passing on the information. If you have any questions please contact the organizers.

Don’t know if you missed this or it got posted up later, but the site does state some prize money. In Euros, 1500 overall winner, 250-150-100 for category winner and places.Also-The organizers are entitled to buy pieces of work at their choice and according to preliminary negotiations-whatever this means.
However, the whole site does not promote confidence, very shaky English and the description of the categories does not sound very professional. I do wonder where the entry fee would end up, if you can follow the bank details.
If anyone can shed more light on this please do so.

Hi Darius, as I said I am just passing on the information but if you have any questions please contact the organizers at:

office@photoworldbg.com

Thanks Svetlana for posting the info, I certainly appreciate your effort and this is certainly not a case of shooting the messenger. We need to make our own decisions about whether a comp is worthwhile, and if we get burnt, well, put it down to life experience, learn from it and move on. So once again thanks for giving us all the info.