Moab Man;bt2737 said:
What's a Salon? I only know them as a place ladies go to get their hair done.
Here's an explanation I found, rather long winded but gives you an idea
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WHAT IS A SALON?[/h][COLOR=rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.701961)]
It's basically another word for an exhibition. In most cases, a camera club or photography society creates their salon with a few core sections - "open colour", "monochrome" and "nature" are three you will almost always find - and often additional sections depending on the individual tastes & interests of the organisers. [/COLOR]
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With their salon all set up, the photo club then approaches a few international associations for their patronage - bodies like FIAP & PSA exist to promote photography and standards in international exhibitions and also supply a range of awards to recognise photographic merit in these exhibitions. I'll talk more about FIAP & PSA later. The idea is that a photographic salon with either FIAP or PSA patronage (most likely both) means that images are judged to a fair and usually fairly reliable standard, regardless of where in the world the exhibition is.[/COLOR]
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The call then goes out to photographers around the world to submit images for each section of the salon. The limit is four photos per section so depending on the salon, the photographer can be submitting anywhere for 12 to even 20+ images to a single salon. The photographer does pay to enter a salon and it's not guaranteed that images you enter will win an award or even be accepted. It depends hugely on the relative standard of your work and the tastes of individual judges as to what is accepted into their salon. By and large though, quality work is universally recognised though as with every art form sometimes there is no accounting for taste![/COLOR]
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Once the entry phase has passed, the images are judged to standards set by whomever they have received patronage from and a week or two later, the results for the salon are published. Many salons then hold real-world exhibitions in a public venue to display the images that have won awards for the everyone to view. Photos that have won awards, commendations or honourable mentions are then sent certificats, small trophies/medals and in rare cases a salon may offer cash prizes. The rest of the images are either accepted or declined and each photographer is given a report card showing how well they did. The notion of an acceptance is important and one I'll talk about later.[/COLOR]
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You may also see reference to something called "circuits". This is basically a collective of salons and often organised by national bodies within one or more countries. The idea is very similar - you submit images for each section but instead of going to one salon, the same set of photos goes to three or more linked salons for judging. As a result, it's possible to pay for one submission to a circuit and get far more acceptances or chances of an award than entering a single salon. There are some technical limitations I will talk about later but the main drawback is that it's usually more expensive to enter a circuit than a salon, but almost always cheaper than entering the same number of individual salons. For now, don't worry too much about circuits.[/COLOR]
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WHAT'S THE POINT?[/h][COLOR=rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.701961)]
Unless you're a stunning pohotographer with a huge portfolio of world class images, the goal of most photographers entering a salon is to earn acceptances. This means your photograph is officially recorded as meeting a minimum standard by the salon judges and they want to include it in that year's suite of exhibited images. These acceptances then tie-in to the governing bodies I mentioned. FIAP & PSA are the two best known ones though others are starting to emerge. "
A Beginner's Guide to Photography Salons — davidcandlish.photography this is the website that the description is from.[/COLOR]
