Have you wondered … about who's who?

PSA Journal, May, 2004 by Jean Timmermeister

Annually the Journal takes many pages of the May issue for a listing of the photographers worldwide that enjoy the competition of PSA-recognized exhibitions and have met the minimum numbers needed to be listed in this select group of members. The Photographic Society of America (PSA) Who's Who (as well as the Star Ratings) system is unique in identifying photographers that have submitted their images to various sections of PSA-recognized exhibitions that have been adjudged in the top percentage of the entrants.

In this issue, hundreds of names, both domestic and international are listed on pages 12-27 under designation for each of the Divisions of our Society. Additionally the Who's Who chairmen will pull out the top exhibitors of each Division, sometimes also separating North American exhibitors from Overseas exhibitors. Those in the top of each bracket are the "high rollers" of exhibitors worldwide with the best percentage of "acceptances" in PSA-recognized exhibitions (formerly known as "salons"). The information in this issue's Who's Who pages comes from the exhibition catalogs which are required to be sent from each exhibition to the PSA volunteers handling various aspects of the recordkeeping. Each exhibition records all the acceptances, plus the awards meted out by the panels of judges, in said catalogs. Most catalogs will have one or more photos of the selected award winners. In countries where printing is much cheaper than in our own country, the catalogs will often have vast numbers of images--a feature not possible in US catalogs.

For some, this May issue of the Journal is the most important issue of the year: to see the listings of oneself and others, but especially to see the standings set apart in the boxes in each Division.

Significantly the Who's Who listing brings us back, once again, to the issue of entering the many competitions (listed near the back of each issue on pages 46-49.) The Consolidated Exhibition Standards (CES) document is available on the PSA website and it clarifies the business aspects of the exhibition system, in each case the exhibition requires that the entrant own the copyright for every image be enters. Immediately, we say to ourselves that we understand that principal. Every judge and every worker of every salon makes the assumption that each and every entrant has guaranteed the images entered under his name are his own work, and that an altered image (in those sections where altering is allowed) began with a photograph taken by the entrant. Pretty basic, we would say, but discussions abound in PSA, as there are records where entrants have not held to this required principal. A judge's assumption must be that every entrant has followed the roles. The volunteers in the salons make the same assumption; your Editor accepts the records sent by PSA volunteers for the 2003 Who's Who listing article and the Journal publishes them for your perusal.

Jean Timmermeister, FPSA

pubvp@psa-photo.org