I have been sat on this information for a couple of weeks now and have only told a couple of people - why...!!! Not sure really, partly embarrassment and partly not wanting to look like I'm blowing my own trumpet, believe it or not, I'm shy on the sly, I know it's hard to believe but I am
I decided I needed to tell you all because if nothing else, I hope it will encourage other people to give the salons a try.
Two weeks ago I passed my AFIAP which means "Artiste Federation Internationale De L'Art Photographique" which translates to - International Federation of Photographic Art (Artist).
For those of you who don't know what a Salon is, it's basically a competition, there are two types - International and British. Salons are organised all over the world, you submit your images via the internet (although now to get any FIAP award they have introduced a criteria for prints - I think it's to try and keep printing alive). There are usually categories eg mono, colour, nature, creative - there are loads of different ones, you can usually submit up to 4 images per section and there are usually 3 or 4 sections. You have to pay to enter, but the more images you submit the cheaper it is, an average cost for 3 sections can be anywhere between £8 to £20 but I kept to the cheaper ones. Once you have submitted to a couple of salons, you start receiving invites to others.
The images are then looked at and if they score high enough you get an "Acceptance", if your image is really good, it can get an award. For me to get my AFIAP I had to achieve a minimum of: 40 acceptances with 15 different images over 15 different salons in 8 different countries (you need to keep a good log of what you have submitted and to whom etc..) it took me over 12 months to achieve and you can only apply once a year so if you miss the deadline then you have to wait for the following year. Entering salons can be addictive, because the more acceptances you get the more you want to achieve.
What do you get out of it.... well besides giving you goals and motivation to improve and progress your photography, once you get your certificate you can have letters after your name - Oooooooooo...!!!!
Anyway, I just wanted to share this with you. If anyone is thinking about entering the salons and you want to have a chat about it, please give me a shout.
Best Wishes
Tracey McGovern AFIAP
