Niall Whelan Photography

Since I’ve had more free time this year to devote to photography, I started thinking about progressing my distinction beyond the IPF Licentiate and look the the next level Associate (AIPF).  But when I looked at my work to date and thought about the panel requirements for the A, I really did not feel I had the images or forethought to put a credible panel of work together.  I also felt I did not want to create a body of work solely for the fulfillment of a distinction.  So I thought about the alternative.

FIAP distinctions are internationally recognized and have the added benefit for the likes of me that images are accepted on their own merit without needing to be part of a body of work in panel format.  Around the same time I achieved my LIPF in 2009 I also entered one salon, but received no acceptances.  That was the first and last time I looked at this avenue until last month.  In the intervening years I believe my photography has much improved, so armed with some old and new images I set out to start down the road to achieving an AFIAP…  A good source for preparing yourself for this journey can be found on Ciaran Whytes blogs on FIAP and Salons.

When I look at what lay ahead, the FIAP distinctions requirements are not trivial…

Four salons later I’m happy to say I’ve received 30 acceptances on a total of 13 images already.  The requirements for the AFIAP are two fold: FIAP requirements and IPF requirements.

The FIAP requirements have changed over the years and now require 40 acceptances of 15 works in 15 salons in 8 countries with over a year since first acceptance.

The additional IPF requirement is the have 4 acceptances in an Irish Salon – Tallaght or Cork, or images achieving top 35% scoring in national competition.

So I’m off to a good start but even so, I will not be able to apply for an AFIAP until Feb 2016 as the application is only made to FIAP after the 28th Feb. deadline each year.  So I have plenty of time to find two more images to receive acceptances and apply to 13 more salons in 6 more countries.

The accepted images so far are below:

I guess by the time February 2016 comes around I should have produced a sizable chunk of the next 50 images required to start the EFIAP distinction journey… This time however, I may even try to derive a set of images for an A Panel while I’m at it.