That Elusive “A” – an Applicant’s Perspective By Paul Willyams APSNZ AFIAP MNZIPP
THEY SAY THAT you learn more from your failures than your successes – if so, then I am an expert in Associate applications! I finally got it last year after several failures, most of them unexpected, disappointing and frustrating. As I write this you might be sending off your Associate Honours set, or thinking about it for next year. So, what have I learned that you might use? The first thing: I was not alone in having my set rejected. I know many now Fellows who struggled to get their “A”. The success rate is not high, about one in four I think, so each year there are grumpy photographers at our convention. The mood is not lightened when a newbie gets it on their first try! Second thing: this is seriously difficult. The standard of photography and set design is at an advanced level. You are ‘competing’ against the top active club photographers in the country, trying to get into the top quartile. OK, so technically you are not competing, you are being assessed against a standard. But, the Board is not going to select every submission, so aim to be one of the best, not just to get to a standard. And beware, the standard goes up each year. Third thing: the most important thing, the “one ring to rule them all”, is: quality. Bruce emphasised this in his video, and that is consistent with my experience. Each and every image must deserve to be in the set and be technically impeccable. Remember, they will be peered at intently by those photographers who have missed out. You might get away with the odd issue that
Paul’s set is available on the PSNZ website and is expertly analysed by Bruce Girdwood in the Honours Q&A video at https://vimeo. com/486655857 and go to 28m 44s on the timeline. you didn’t notice, but don’t count on it. Fourth thing: a set is not a selection of your best work. I have won lots of awards for individual images, but try to put those images into a set and it just doesn’t work. This leads me to my main challenge – creating a set. If you have been following the grumblings over the last decade you will know the big question: themed or diverse. The guidelines have not been clear in the past. Successful sets have generally been of an excellent quality but highly themed, whilst diverse sets have done poorly. A perception emerged of an unwritten rule that a themed set was required and diversity was, if anything, a disadvantage. The Board made strong efforts last year to dispel that perception and reinforce the need for diversity. Frankly, I believe the word ‘theme’ should not be used. It means different things to different people, so try not to think that way. What the Board is looking for (based on Bruce Girdwood’s excellent Honours Q&A video) is a display of a range of advanced photographic skills, within a coherent set of images. Diversity is essential to show the range of photographic skills, but the set still needs incredibly careful construction to make a set that ‘hangs together’.
Note: These are the author’s views and do not necessarily reflect those of the Honours Board or PSNZ. 30
