1. Structure of club exhibitions and competitions
a. Exhibition Judging
Exhibitions are held throughout the year in a schedule determined annually by the Committee. On each exhibition night, members may submit one entry in each of the categories scheduled for that month. The categories are: Print – Subject, Print – Open, Projected – Subject and Projected – Open. Each entry will be judged and critiqued by a WAPJA judge, or an experienced external photographer chosen by the Committee
MPC has adopted the WA Photographic Judges Association guidelines on Scoring for Exhibitions. Awards are given as follows.
WAPJA Level 8 – Gold with Distinction: The image displays the highest level of excellence in art photography. All judging criteria are strong, especially the message (emotion, story, mood, etc) and there are no flaws evident. The combined elements have produced a supreme example of art photography. The image would be expected to do well in a higher-level exhibition.
WAPJA Level 7 – Gold: A very strong image displaying a high level of excellence in art photography. Most judging criteria are expertly handled. The technical standard is very high.
WAPJA Leve 6 – Silver: A strong image with good evidence for classification as art photography. Successful visual communication has been achieved. Some elements are very good, the technical standard is high, and significant flaws are not evident.
WAPJA Level 5 – Bronze: A sound image with at least one strong element. There is evidence of an intention to combine skill and artistry. A message is present but may not be strong. Any flaws are minor or compensated by other successful elements.
WAPJA Level 4 – Merit: A competent image with a clear centre-of-interest. Composition, lighting, technical and other elements may be satisfactory, but the image does not transmit a clear message (emotion, story, mood, etc). It has not quite reached the standard of art photography as defined by the awards above.
In addition to the official judging, members are given a Members Choice voting slip and asked to choose what they consider the best print in the set subject category. . These votes are tallied by the print stewards and the Members Choice winner announced on the night. No competition-of-the-year points are awarded for Members Choice winners.
b. End of Year Competitions
For each monthly exhibition the following EOY points are awarded:
Entry: 1 point
Merit: 1 additional point (total 2)
Bronze: 2 additional points (total 3)
Silver: 3 additional points (total 4)
Gold: 4 additional points (total 5)
Gold Distinction: 5 additional points (total 6)
Prints and projected images are selected by an appointed judge for the End of Year awards. All images having gained Gold or Silver awards in both subject and open exhibitions in the course of the year are eligible for judging. All gold and silver print entries must be made available to the Print Steward for delivery to the appointed judge after the October meeting. Entries for these awards are judged as “Open” submissions.
Annual awards, based on aggregate points, are presented as follows:
- Best Projected Image – Subject (and runner up)
- Best Projected Image – Open (and runner up).
- Best Print – Subject (and runner up).
- Best Print – Open (and runner up).
- Print of the Year (highest scoring print).
- Projected Image of the Year (highest scoring projected image).
- Image of the Year (highest scoring image, print or projected).
- Photographer of the Year (highest aggregate score in all categories).
All annual awards and trophies are presented at the December club meeting.
c. Club Outings, Rallies and Workshop Competitions
There may be occasions throughout the year when members are invited to submit prints or projected images on a subject relevant to a club outing, rally, or educational workshop. For these competitions, the winning entries are selected by a vote of the members present on the competition night. There are no points given for End of Year awards but the winning photographer may receive a small prize at that meeting.
d. Annual “Athol Wellman” Memorial Trophy
Each June, members are invited to submit a group of four images in print format in the following subjects: portrait, landscape, architecture and close-up; competing for a perpetual trophy with the winner determined by member voting.
2. Eligibility
Exhibitions and Competitions are open only to Financial Members and Honorary Life Members of the Club.
No image may be entered into more than one of the club’s exhibitions in the same year.
It is MPC convention that images generated during educational workshops, where the creativity and imagination are largely provided by instructors, are not eligible for monthly exhibitions or the Athol Wellman Trophy.
Images that have won a GOLD or GOLD DISTINCTION award in any Melville Photography Club exhibition may not be entered again in any of the club’s monthly exhibitions.
All projected image and print entries must have been photographed and post-processed by the member submitting them.
Prints may be produced by someone else, but the preparation and choice of paper and matt must be those of the creator of the image.
Any photograph in which the main content is a representation of another artist’s pictorial work is not acceptable. If someone else’s art is included in an entry, there must be a significant creative element contributed by the photographer. Significance in this context will be a determination made by the judge.
‘Content-aware fill’, or similar processes, that are based on pixels in the original image are allowed. Hence, removal of unwanted objects or distractions is permitted with this condition.
‘Extend canvas’, or similar processes to enlarge an image beyond its original boundaries, are allowed if the extension is based on original pixels within the image.
‘Generative fill’ or similar other processes that use content generated elsewhere (not by the photographer) to add or replace parts of an image are not permitted.
Composite images are permitted, provided all of the images used are those of the photographer. Hence, replacement skies and other objects or elements are permitted with the same provision.
‘Artificial Intelligence’, where imagery is derived from computer-prompted descriptions, is not permitted.
4. Policy on the non-attendance of a Judge
In the event that a judge gives a late indication of his/her inability to attend an MPC competition or exhibition event, and the club is unable to procure a replacement, the following policy applies. If there is a WAPJA Judge present amongst the members attending on the night, he or she is asked to conduct the judging. If there is an agreement to do the judging, the member’s entries in the competition/exhibition are withdrawn to avoid a conflict of interest. The withdrawn images are then presented to any other WAPJA judge attending on the night – the second judge is asked to score the images according to the same criteria and definitions that applied on the night the images were withdrawn.
If a WAPJA Judge is not present amongst the members, the judging may be conducted by a panel of three experienced members chosen on the night by those present. The panel evaluates each image according to the WAPJA Judging Method and scores images consistent with the WAPJA Awards System (as best they are able). The scores given by panel members are averaged to produce a final result for each image. When images from an individual panel member are evaluated, the owner temporarily withdraws from the panel.
4. Definition of Set Subjects for Club Exhibitions
A program of set subjects for the club’s exhibition year, and relevant dates, are provided to members at or prior to the final meeting in December. Melville Photography Club acknowledges the value in freedom of interpretation and the artistic expression of subject matter and tries not to impose tightly restrictive definitions of set subjects. However, to help members avoid having an image rejected because it does not fit the set subject, the Competition Director offers a set of brief subject definitions. Each definition is as precise and concise as possible. Definitions may include items that will not be accepted for the topic chosen. The definitions are posted on the MPC website before the start of the exhibition year. The MPC website will include the definition for the following exhibition so that members are made fully aware of what will and will not be eligible.
On the exhibition night, the MPC Competition Director (CD) will determine the eligibility of images submitted in a ‘set subject’ category and inform the judge that ineligible images should be critiqued but not scored. The judge will announce that the decision to declare an image ineligible has been taken by the CD.
5. Presentation of Entries
a. Projected Images
All digital projected images must be submitted in JPG format, no larger than 5MB in size and in the sRGB colour space. It is recommended that JPGs be saved at a minimum quality of 8. Images should be sized to suit the club’s projector. While any aspect ratio is acceptable, they should not exceed 1920 pixels on the horizontal side or 1080 pixels on the vertical side. Projected images must be submitted on-line here, one week or more before the exhibition night. The club will retain all projected images for the Image of the Year competition in December.
b. Prints
The member decides on the size and aspect ratio of the prints and mount board. All entries must be mounted in a suitable mount board no smaller than 25 x 20 cm (10 x 8 in) and no larger than 40 x 50 cm (15.75 x 19.75 in) on the outer edge. The back of each print must be marked with category, membership number and title. Prints also have to be submitted on-line here up to 12pm the day of the the exhibition.
e.g. Subject. Member 100. “Leaf Pattern.”; Open. Member 100. “My Garden”
WAPF’s recommendations for its annual conference are as follows: prints may be presented on any mount board no larger than 40 x 50 cm (15.75 x 19.75 in) on the outer edge.
Commercial, or owner-cut, matt boards should comply with window sizes:
A3 (29 x 41 cm; 11.5 x 16 in),
A4 (20 x 29 cm; 8 x 11.5 in),
panorama (14 x 41 cm; 5.5 x 16.5 in), or
square (20 x 20 cm; 8 x 8 in),
Melville Photography Club prints must be marked with exhibition category, membership number and title. All prints should have 3 mm board as a backing board to avoid damage.
Members names should not appear on any competition entries and all entries should be handed to the print stewards no later than 7:30 pm on the night of the exhibition.