Activities and Services of the Pictorial Print Division - Brief Article

The Pictorial Print Division offers many opportunities for members and affiliated clubs. Of course most members are familiar with the International Exhibitions which are held all over the world for members and nonmembers alike to enter. A panel of judges views and votes on the prints. About 30% of the prints entered are accepted for exhibition. A catalog is published listing the acceptances, and sent to all of the entrants. Just sitting in on a judging can be a learning experience. I stated earlier that a person does not need to be a member of PSA to enter prints in PPD-approved International Exhibitions. However if a person desires recognition through Star Ratings, membership in PSA is a requirement. Star Ratings give recognition to members based on the number of acceptances received from competition in International Exhibitions.

Among the activities offered for individuals, the American, Canadian, and European Portfolios, plus the Portrait Portfolios are some of the most popular activities. A portfolio consists of about 10 members and all, except star portfolios, have an experienced printer as the commentator. The members of each portfolio place a print in the portfolio and comment on the other's prints, as does the commentator. When the portfolio comes around the next time, the member removes his or her print and places a new one in the portfolio, again commenting on everyone else's prints. This is another good learning tool.

The Salon Workshops are a unique activity aimed at improving the members' printing abilities. They set up similar to a portfolio but instead of using their own negatives, a master negative is provided by a master printer, who evaluates all of the prints that members have printed.

I'm sure that if you're a diligent reader of the Journal, you have seen the Picture of the Month (POM) in the monthly issues. This is a service for individuals who belong to the POM. They compete in Monochrome and Color at two different levels. They are judged by a different judge every month. One of the winners is chosen as the Print of the Month. A new feature started by the directors of this activity is "The People's Choice Award" where people attending the PSA conference each year are allowed to vote on their favorite for the entire year. This has created more interest in the PPD display.

Personalized Print Analysis, (shown quarterly under Instructional Services, Personal Evaluation, in the Services and Activities section of the Journal) is a service which allows a PSA member to send up to four 5x7 or 8x10 prints to the director of this service, who will have an expert evaluate it, and send you a comprehensive analysis, with helpful comments.

There are services for camera clubs as well. They are available to all PSA affiliated camera clubs, club councils, associations, and federations. The International Club Print Competition (ICPC) holds competitions four times a year. Individual and club awards are given for the best prints submitted. Club Print Judging Service is another activity in which a club can have an expert from another area of the country judge and comment on their prints. Usually the prints and a blank audio tape are sent to the selected judge. The comments are designed to offer suggestions that may improve the work of those submitting prints.

There is usually a small fee for any of the above activities. Additional information and enrollment forms may be obtained by writing to the PPD activities directors listed quarterly in the PSA Journal.

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