Blog Post #41

Distinction Dilemma

It’s been a few weeks since I compiled a Blog post as it’s been a busy time what with family events and relatives visiting. The weather has been exceptional too and sometimes just sitting doing nothing seemed like the best option. I was contemplating what to talk about this week and have decided to talk about the Royal Photographic Society (RPS) and distinctions. For those of you not familiar with this, the RPS offer members the opportunity to attain distinctions at Licenciate (LRPS) Associate (ARPS) and Fellowship (FRPS) levels.

I joined the RPS last year to see what it had to offer. I had always considered joining so I paid my membership fee and started exploring the members section on the website. I have mentioned in a previous blog post that I wasn’t particularly interested in the distinctions but as time has gone by curiosity has got the better of me. I started to look at the requirements for the first level (LRPS) and saw that there was an “Advisory Study Group” Zoom session coming up for members planning to go for the LRPS distinction. I booked on to the Zoom session and anticipated finding out about all things LRPS.

The session was basically an opportunity for members hoping to go down the LRPS route to submit some work ahead of the Zoom call for an “Advisor” to review, critique and guide the applicant towards generating a panel layout of 10 photos for the LRPS assessment panel when the time comes. I didn’t submit any work for assessment as I had not started the journey yet and I was there more in an observer role. There were about 8 of us on the call plus the organiser and the Advisor. The Advisor started reviewing the panel of photos submitted by the applicants in turn making comments for improvement and providing guidance etc. This went on for over 2 hours and was running way over time so I left the call. I think by that time I had gathered enough information about the process and requirements anyway, so these are my observations and comments.

Without meaning to be disrespectful towards the Advisor or the LRPS assessment process, it reminded me of my camera club days where judges would come along and give their opinions on whether they thought your work was good or bad. Yes there would be pearls of wisdom to be imparted that would certainly improve the image but there would also be comments that would be off the mark and go contrary to what the photographer was putting across in their work. It is always a subjective process. Listening to the session therefore became a bit repetitive and although the advisor was mainly kind in his comments he was equally scathing when he considered an image to be too weak to be in the ten image panel. There was one thing though that came across during the conversation that made me think, “is this for me?”

The RPS describe the LRPS Distinction as follows.

“For the Licentiate, applicants must show (among other criteria) a variety of approach and techniques but not necessarily in subject matter. It's demanding but achievable for most dedicated photographers. It will require you to submit 10 images which reflect your ability as a photographer.”

All applications for the Licentiate distinction will be assessed against the following criteria.

1. Camera work and Technical Quality

2. Visual Awareness

3. Communication

4. Overall Impression

As the Advisor was making his comments, he made it clear that a variety of techniques would have to be covered in any submission and the ability to shoot varying subject matter would be important. The use of wide angle to telephoto lenses, flash, macro, etc would all need to be taken into consideration in order to determine the photographers grasp of the craft of photography. This is where I started to loose interest.

Although I am confident in using a camera and have tackled all of these criteria within my large back catalogue of photographs, I have no intentions of going back to genres of photography I have no interest in. Taking photos of butterflies or plants, or subjects that don’t interest me just to satisfy a submission panel is not for me. I am at the stage where street and documentary photography is what I am interested in and always have been.

I could see from the photos that the Advisor was reviewing that the applicants had strengths say in macro work but other images were weak just because they had been forced to include them due to the submission rules. It was as if the process was driving applicants to show that they a Jack of all trades but master of none (or maybe one). I am sure the RPS have their tried and tested criteria for awarding LRPS distinctions but that doesn’t mean I have to agree with them. I am also a member of the RPS Documentary group but they only offer distinctions at ARPS and FRPS levels.

I therefore doubt if RPS distinctions are for me. I would be interested to hear your comments on this.

I hope you have enjoyed this blog post and thank you for reading it. If you want to comment on this blog post please do so below or you can contact me by using the “Contact Me” facility in the website header.