A BLISTERING RESULT - 7 AWARDS IN ONE SALON !
26th February 2012
Always efficient, Photoclub 202 in Serbia published the list of awarded images in this years 1st International Photography Circuit Exhibition - Portrait 2012 and it made very interesting reading indeed. A total of seven awards - 4 medals and 3 salon praises was my reward for entering this salon. For all you number crunchers there were 11,201 works submitted from 692 authors from 59 countries around the world.The list of awards can be seen here.
It would be wrong of me not to mention Ciaran Whyte FIPF EFIAP(?), another prominent Irish photographer. In this same salon Ciaran received four awards including his fifth FIAP Gold medal and his fourth FIAP Blue Badge (Best Author) - that's some going !
My awards were:
In Portrait 2012 - Zajecar
Bronzana SALON medalja / Bronze SALON medal, Brian Hopper, Ireland, barber to the famous
UPI medalja / UPI medal, Brian Hopper, Ireland, juchi wrapped
FSS pohvale / FSS praise, Brian Hopper, Ireland, prison bars
In Portrait 2012 - Paracin
Zlatna FSS medalja / Gold FSS medal, Brian Hopper, Ireland, barber to the famous
SALON pohvale / SALON praise, Brian Hopper, Ireland, iveta seated
In Portrait 2012 - Aleksinac
Srebrna SALON medalja / Silver SALON medal, Brian Hopper, Ireland, barber to the famous
UPI pohvale / UPI praise, Brian Hopper, Ireland, juchi wrapped
I've just worked out that I have achieved a whopping 45 acceptances in this circuit with 12 new images entered and, I have to say, to be awarded in any International Salon is very special indeed. The medals vary in quality but each represents a milestone in any salon - I shouldn't really compare one medal with another but as one gathers the "prizes" one can't but compare. Perhaps the most notable medal was one I was awarded in 2010 from Celje 2010 in Slovenia. It is a silver medal with my image etched on it - someone once remarked it was printed better than I had presented it !
Comments
By Ciaran: As far as FIAP goes, an award is an award and like you say, each represents a milestone. But I think if you're honest with yourself, there are some awards that bring more satisfaction and some awards that are nicer to have, based simply on the quality (or maybe it's just me?)
I think FIAP medals still rank amongst the nicest medals - certainly they're the only ones I've framed to date. This FZS medal (which Tony won, so it's not mine) is a really nice medal. You also mentioned a medal that was engraved with the image, which is a nice touch.
Sadly then there's the duds, like the UPI and also the FSS which I know you picked up a few of lately. These are nice to win, but can't see them ever getting the pride of place - in a frame above the fireplace. The IPF could also perhaps look at improving on theirs?
Anyway, congrats on the wins.
By the way, email address appears not to be optional on your form. If its left blank, it's complains about cookies not being enabled. And if you include a link in your comment, it dumps everything and you have to type it all again. By Brian: Thanks Ciaran. As I said before the UPI medals are unfortunately "cheap" looking and yet there is only one per salon / section. If UPI want the medal to be exclusive they have to spend some money to improve the medal. Also, the salon should take a stance and insist the medal is brought up to standard. The FIAP and PSA medals have a certain status - other bodies need to take heed. I think, all-in-all, when your name appear on the exclusive list of award winners everyone else (entrants from around the globe) takes note. My first UPI medal had $500 attached - that softened the blow !
Will look into the email & link matters(although I have no problem with not including the email) By Brian: I thought of contacting United Photographers International for some time now as their award seems to take precedence over FIAP or PSA awards in some salons and to be honest the quality of the medal is not really "up there" - here's the reply I got :
thank you for your well-intentioned comments.
You are right that UPI medal is presented over and above a FIAP or PSA
medals in a lot of salons. I believe that our gold medal is better than
PSA gold metal, for example. But in any case be sure that when, these are
no more medals left,we will discuss about the new medals. I would like to
mention that when we ordered these medals our photographic organisation
was just at it's beginning and the cost was very important.
my regards
Metzakis Manolis UPI CR3, EFIAP/g, ESFIAP, PSA**
President of UPI
Fair play to the president of UPI, Metzakis Manolis for having the courage to reply personally - not too many in his position would.
The jury is still out....