“Photography is a kind of primitive theater, a kind of Tableau Vivant, a figuration of the motionless and made-up face beneath which we see the dead.”

~Roland Barthes

Last year my friend Suzanne, of Thus Says Suzanne fame, came up with a wonderful contest idea that fit so nicely in with the R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril theme that I simply had to ask to co-sponser the event. The results of this idea, a photo contest telling a sinister tale, can be seen in the wrap up post from the first event here.

Suzanne, along with her sister Mosker (who incidentally lives here in KC and works for the same company as my dear wife) came up with some really fun examples last year and have done so again this year. The opening image is from Suzanne, and the image after the break is from Mosker.

These two creative souls have agreed to co-host this event again for R.I.P. III and will again be donning their judge robes for this year’s event.

There will be two categories and two prizes for Something Sinister II. Make the jump and I’ll tell you all about it.

The first category for image submission is the Sinister category. As described by Suzanne:

“It’s really all about the word sinister which is defined (in part) as follows:

singularly evil or productive of evil
presaging ill fortune or trouble
accompanied by or leading to disaster

When I came up with the project the idea was to take something innocent and make something sinister and dark. That’s what I hope to see in the images submitted this year.

Make it as simple or as complicated as you want, but tell me a story (without telling me the whole story, leave a little something to my imagination), make me think, make me worry, make me look over my shoulder. And as for you…have fun with it! I’m really looking forward to seeing again what Carl’s creative readers come up with.”

Another definition, from Mosker: “…create an image with ordinary things that suggest something bad may have happened.”

The idea with this category is for your submission to tell a story.

My image from last year that I was trying to convey a story with was:

You can use photo-altering programs if you want but the important caveat is that you are altering an image that you yourself took, not something you found on the internet.

The second category for image submission is the Creepy category.

The dictionary defines ‘creepy’ as: “having or causing a creeping sensation of the skin, as from horror or fear”.

The most simple definition I can give for this category is that these are your scary pictures, the ones that don’t fit the definition for the Sinister category but are nice and creepy in their own right. I think the majority of pictures that you saw if you clicked the opening link and looked at last year’s examples fit into this category.

I wanted to do two categories this year so that we could honor the spirit of the contest Suzanne developed which challenges you to use your photography and story telling skills and to also encourage submission of those great eerie, creepy photos that fit in the R.I.P. spirit but do not necessarily tell a tale.

Contest details:

You have until Wednesday, October 29th at 11:59 p.m. CST to submit pictures to either or both categories. You can submit as many images as you want, however I will only officially enter two images per person per category into the final judging. This allows you to continue to submit images through the next two weeks as your muse directs and then I’ll ask for you to choose your final entries for judging by the deadline date.

You do not have to submit to both categories but you are allowed to do so. We will choose one winner per category. If you win one category we will pick a different winner for the second category, that way the prize packs will spread the love that much farther! 😉

And what is in the prize packs you may ask? Sticking with my ‘treat’ theme this year I will not reveal all that is going to be in the prize packs. If you’ve seen any of my former prize packs then you know it will be full of all kinds of goodies.

What I can reveal is that Anne-Julie Aubry has donated signed copies of each of these images below as well as some other little art treasures that will be going in the prize packs:

and

The Sinister Prize Pack will include this wonderful book of images by Jennifer Gordon:

there will be R.I.P. erasers:

and R.I.P. bubble eyes:

and more!!!

Email your entries to cvincent68 (at) comcast (dot) net

Don’t be afraid to get creative and by all means get out there and give this a shot (pardon the pun). I look forward to seeing what you all come up with this year!!!

Feel free to ask questions either in the comments or via email if you have them.

Happy….er, eerie…shooting everyone!