ARPS!
Off early this morning to get to the Royal Photographic Society HQ in Bath, and wanting to miss the traffic round the M25. I had my ARPS (Visual Art) assessment today, with the panel of 15 images shown here. I’m very pleased, and relieved, to report a successful mission.
Founded in 1853, the Royal Photographic Society is one of the world’s oldest photographic organisations, created when photography itself was still in its experimental years. Over time it has grown into an international charity dedicated to promoting photography as both an art and a science, running exhibitions, talks, workshops and an unbroken photographic journal that goes back to the Victorian era. Its headquarters acts as a hub for all of this activity, and on assessment days it fills up with nervous photographers clutching print boxes and hoping their panels will make the grade.
One of the RPS’s best‑known contributions to the photographic world is its distinctions system: LRPS, ARPS and FRPS – those mysterious letters that appear after people’s names. The Licentiate (LRPS) is the entry level distinction, but it’s far from a rubber stamp; it requires a panel of ten images that show solid camera craft, good technical control and consistency across a range of subjects and techniques. The Associate (ARPS) takes things a step further by asking for a coherent body of fifteen images, built around a clear Statement of Intent and showing a personal style as well as a high standard of presentation and printing. Beyond that, the Fellowship (FRPS) is reserved for work that makes a distinctive, often long‑term contribution in a particular field.
Assessment days are a fascinating mix of nerve‑racking and inspiring. Panels are presented as finished prints, laid out exactly as the photographer intends them to be seen, and a group of experienced assessors discuss each one in front of the audience before coming to a decision. It’s quite something to watch your own work go up on the display boards while a panel of Fellows weighs up the strengths and weaknesses of images you’ve lived with for months. When they finally announce a pass, there’s a real sense of relief that all the planning, editing and printing (and the early start to Bath) have paid off.
My Statement of Intent for this panel read:
“As a father of five boys, I have had the opportunity (and the responsibility) to document their childhood and family life over the years. As a photographer, one of my favourite forms is the monochrome environmental portrait. My intention with this panel is to capture the spirit of raising boys in the twenty‑first century – moments from the serene to the riotous, happy and somber, sometimes slightly surreal.”
For this panel I wanted each photograph to feel like a small slice from our family’s ongoing story rather than a set of posed portraits. The boys are shown in their own environments – garden, kitchen, countryside, sofa – doing the things they actually do, often oblivious to the camera and occasionally staring it down. Working in monochrome helps to strip away the distractions and clutter of everyday life and lets the viewer concentrate on gesture, expression and light; muddy knees, battered toys and makeshift dens become part of the texture rather than the main event.
Across the fifteen images the mood moves from quiet, intimate moments to full‑tilt chaos, which feels pretty true to life in a house full of boys. There are hints of tenderness and vulnerability as well as mischief and rough‑and‑tumble, and I tried to keep a slightly playful, sometimes surreal edge running through the set so it didn’t tip into pure nostalgia. Seen together, the panel is less a tidy “best of” selection and more a visual notebook from this particular period of our family’s life – one that I’m very glad I’ve taken the time to record, and now have the added bonus of seeing recognised in this way
Fujifilm X-E1, various lenses, Lightroom, SEP2, CEP4, Photoshop
