2012 PPOC Image Salon

Every year, the Professional Photographers of Canada (PPOC) hold a national image competition called the Image Salon. I have no idea of the history of the name, but it’s a very serious contest. Basically you select four of you images and you send them out to compete with the best in the country. In the PPOC Image Salon, your images are judged by experts in various categories and can receive one of four results. The first in “Unaccepted”, which means exactly that. The next level is “Accepted”, which means they like your work and you’ll be included in the contest and a book of photographs the PPOC publishes annually. The next level is “Merit”, which means they thought your image was better than most and better than the “Accepted” images. The highest level is “Excellence”, which means they judged your work at the very top of the scale. The PPOC used to publish point scores and has moved to the rating system. I am still not sure which one I prefer

Image contests are strange beasts. Many contests have rules where they try to take usage rights or sometimes even ownership of your submitted work (Read the contest rules carefully and do not trust or enter  a contest without checking the rules first). However, legitimate contests like the PPOC Image Salon are still difficult. Not because of anything in the contest, but from the judging of your work. Feedback and constructive criticism are critical to your development as a photographer, regardless of level, but having all your entries ranked as “Unaccepted” can be a staggering emotional body blow. It’s easy to say “Just pick yourself up and enter next year”, but much harder to actually do it. However, the affirmation of creating work that is viewed as “Accepted” or above can be a solid motivation the perhaps you may have a vague idea what you’re doing.

In the past, I have had several of my images ranked as “Accepted”, which is a significant feat. I have also on occasion had all them rejected, which can really make you question your ability as a photographer. This year I had the pleasant surprise to have one of my images ranked as “Merit” and one of them ranked as “Excellence”. This is the first time I have had imaged rank to this level and they were both from my Antarctica expedition.

Merit

“Endurance”

Endurance

Excellence

“Solitude”

Solitude

I’d really like to hear your comments on these images, so please feel free to add a comment below.