ARPS 01

I was delighted this week to become an Associate of the Royal Photographic Society after a successful distinction submission. This required 15 images - in my case as prints - around a coherent topic. The image here was the first in the sequence as displayed and all were based around this New Forest pool, made with an infrared camera and converted to B&W. As I said in my Statement of Intent it's a place of "eccentric charm" - scruffy to you and me - but it had a draw and I returned here over all seasons for several years and felt in the end there were enough images to make a set. Finding the right paper, printing them well and then mounting the prints (40x50cm mounts are recommended) were all practical challenges. The RPS provides a one-2-one session for advice which was invaluable and I had help from a good friend with the mounting. It all came together and I hand-delivered the portfolio to RPS House in Bristol at the end of May. You do have the option of attending the assessment in person but it's not the easiest place to get to for me and my set was first up at 10.00am so I went with the Zoom option to watch it & was pleased I did as the assessors are professionals at the top of our art and I would have retreated under my seat!! I did get some lovely feedback however and was delighted with the outcome after all the emotional energy that went into the process. I'd happily recommend the route for people who wanted to explore their own photography further and of course the project is an objective for something to do with the images we make - I'll need to find something else to focus on now!!

Done