PPSA Members
The PPSA stands for Professional Photographers of South Africa, Not to be mistaken for the PSSA(Photographic society of South Africa). The PPSA is society for Full time Professional photographers operating within South Africa whereas the PSSA consists of photographic clubs that inlcude amateur photographers within photographic clubs around South africa. The PPSA is a network of photographers becoming members after submitting portfolio images to the society, afterwhich they analyse your portfolio to decide whether you are legible to becoming a Member. Portfolios that dont meet a certain level get declined.
In 1988, PPSA launched the PROFOTO AWARDS, to recognize and promote outstanding South African photographers in their fields of specialization. During the ten years of their existence, the awards became the event of the year for professionals and a valuable benchmark for photography in Southern Africa. In 1997 Fuji withdrew this vital sponsorship and this annual event and exhibitions of images ended. As a non-profit organizations funded only on membership subscriptions, the PPSA did not have the resources to stage the awards independently.
The only other awards made for professionalism are only available to PPSA Licentiate photographers who on presentation of a portfolio of images in a specific category of photography apply for an Associate award. Two years after achieving this accolade the photographer can apply for a Fellowship
award. This is the highest (and only award) of achievement for professional excellence in photography. Many outstanding and internationally
recognized South African photographers have achieved this status.
I would love to get a ppsa and to become a member.
I want to learn more about photography to grow with the company Im involved in and to widen my knowledge of photography more! Would definately want to get involved in the competitions and lettin others see my work and hear what they think to hear and see where I can improve etc.
Hey Brad, Im very very glad to hear that you would like to support an organisation like the PPSA. These days photography is rapidly becoming an industry full of individuals that
operate as photographers and sell themselves as proffesionals for pocket money and end up wasting alot of clients time and money as they usually dont have a clue what they are doing.
This is largly due to the fact that photographers starting out dont recieve contructive critisism, and its usually friends and family that drive them to keep shooting.
this is where the PPSA comes in. to become a member you would need to submit a portolio which will then be judged by a panel of proffessional photographers. they would then decide
if you recieve the memebership or not. This might sound like quite a task, but in the end, if you get approved you at least know you in the right direction with regards to the quality of your work
you produce. If more and more photographers could support the PPSA, they could then have the numbers to put Laws into place that could protect proffessional photographers from the flooding of photographers
we are experiencing. if you would like to find out more details you can go to http://www.ppsaonline.co.za, you should be able to gets all the neccesary information required.