FIAP Distinctions for Photographic Merit

I received notification that my application for the EFIAP/Platinum Distinction level award (EFIAP/p) has been successful. This was great news as it has been a project which I started in 2012. The aim was to see if my images would gain acceptances in international photographic salons around the world.

All these photographic salons are run under the auspices of FIAP (Federation Internationale de L’Art Photographique).

Following on from my successful AFIAP (Artist FIAP) application I gained my EFIAP distinction in 2013 (Excellence FIAP) and each subsequent year since then I have achieved the required acceptance to progress up the levels each year.

I have also managed to pick up a number of awards along the way too, which is always a good feeling.

EFIAP/p: Excellence FIAP/Platinum

So a year on from achieving my EFIAP Gold (EFIAP/g), I managed to achieve and pass the requirement required for the EFIAP/p level.

I think it is worth just sharing the requirement for EFIAP/p distinction level. You need to exceed 700 acceptances with at least 250 different works, which have gained acceptances in at least 20 different counties, as well as 7 photographs gaining awards in 7 different counties and different salons.

Hence to achieve this level you need to have a pretty substantial body of work and to have been actively submitting that work to photographic salons around the world.  It really is no mean feat to achieve it.

In my post about achieving my EFIAP Silver, I noted with some regret that FIAP in their wisdom had made major changes to these awards requirements for the following year, which made me question the rationale of continuing to enter international salons.

However later in the year at the FIAP conference, the changes introduced to all the requirements of the awards were revised further, making the requirements sensible again.

So what I have learned along the way with this Project ?

First and foremost you need a good database to keep track of the salons you have entered and your image titles.

Within that database you will also need to keep the record of the FIAP Salon number of the salon you have entered and whether you have entered a Print or a PDI (Projected digital image), together with the year, and the country in which the salon is taking place. If the salon is a circuit you need to record each salon of the circuit and the images entered in each salon making up the circuit.

Upon receiving your results, it is important to check that the titles on the results sheet match your titles, as errors do occur and you need to make sure that the titles that are published in the results are the same as the ones in your database. You also need to record which images have received awards. The check of the awards is done on the image titles against the salon returns to FIAP so they need to match.

You can record lots of other things if you want but those listed above are the main things you will need at the end of the year when you are filling out your application submission.

Image titles are also very important. Make sure you don’t duplicate titles, over a year you can sometimes struggle to think of a title and end up using one that you have already used.  I made that mistake a few times and you can only use the title for one image, so effectively you lose the acceptances you gained from the duplicated title. Also make sure you don’t use the next image in a sequence of images you may have shot as they will be too similar. It is tempting to use another image from a shoot if one has done well. Look carefully at the images you use.

It is important to pick your salons, as you do need a good spread of countries each year. You may be very successful in one country, and it is very tempting to keep entering images in the same area if they do well. You will learn quickly which salons are well run and which to avoid!

If you want to read some of my other blogs about the FIAP distinction trail then the links are below:

 EFIAP2013 and EFIAP/b 2014), EFIAP/s 2015, EFIAP Gold

Here are a few of the images that were part of my EFIAP Platinum application :

So having achieved my aim of gaining the EFIAP/Platinum level what is next ?

I plan to keep entering a few of the international salons but I will be very selective in the ones I spend my money on.

I will mainly be focusing in on the ones that have prints sections. I enjoy creating prints and certainly feel that it is important to keep supporting salons that exhibit prints.

Final thoughts:

As I have pursued the FIAP Salons trail I have seen lots of inspiring work; I have met a number of good photographers; and made some new friends. I’ve been lucky to have travelled internationally as both an award winner and also as a judge.