A recap of the showcase judging - Photographic Society of America's 2003 Chapter showcase

PSA Journal, August, 2003 by Jane Kriete, Russ Kriete

The Chicago Chapter of the Photographic Society of America (PSA) recently completed the judging of the 2003 Chapter showcase. The premier showing will be at the Houston Conference. Slides were of good quality and variety of subjects was excellent. We did get the feeling some Chapters may have held back on submitting their most outstanding pictures because the winning Chapter becomes host of the judging and presentation the following year! Don't get us wrong, the slides were great!

We wish to commend our panel on selecting the best of each Chapter and best overall entry. The judges were Leonard Gordon, FPSA, PPSA; A. Robert Mata, FPSA; and Dr. Lloyd McCarthy, FPSA. Collectively they hold over 115 years of PSA membership averaging more than 38 years of dedicated service to the Society. All three are noted judges and exhibitors.

The customary problems a salon chairman encounters were among those found by the Showcase committee as well. Mainly, Chapter representatives' misspelling of individual entrants' names or slide titles, and failure to show the phonetic pronunciation of difficult names or titles when the form asked for this information. This phonetic aid is needed when making the tape and script to accompany the sets to be distributed. Several did not include the makers' current honors. And, we're sure many chairmen of internationals have seen handwriting that is difficult to decipher!

A plus for those who submitted pictures ... they were unusually clean, free of dirt and debris, which would be recorded in duplication. An excessively dirty slide would rate demerits from any jury and since slides are not removed from glass, each speck or hair would appear in the duplicated slide.

The lab making the slides did run into one or two photographs for which they had a problem matching color of the original. They felt it might have come about due to the maker using a type of film that provides a negative, print and slide from the same image. For the most part, the Showcase sets are good reproductions of the originals.

Showing at Houston is tentatively scheduled for Thursday, September 4th at 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Sets of the 2003 Showcase will be made available for booking by Chapters, Councils and Camera Clubs following the initial program in Houston.

See you at the Conference!