In February 2020 I managed to achieve level 5 in British Photographic Exhibitions (BPE). The BPEs are a set of clubs that organise exhibitions open to British photographers and provide recognition in the form of ‘Crowns’. The points required for each Crown are:

  • 1 Crown = 25 Images accepted or awarded.
  • 2 Crowns = 50
  • 3 Crowns = 100
  • 4 Crowns = 200
  • 5 Crowns = 300

So getting to 5 Crowns has taken me since 2015 when I thought I’d see what the process was all about and suddenly realised that it isn’t easy. Once I achieved my 3rd Crown I took a sabbatical but found I missed the challenge and just had to get back on board the following year.

It is a touch ironic but also quite satisfying that I reached the 5th Crown at Southport Exhibition which is not only my closest salon but has also been my least successful as it’s a tough one. Thanks to all the judges, organisers and supporters of the exhibitions as I bow out of the award scheme now. I will still probably enter some favoured salons in future to test out images on an ad-hoc basis but that’s it from a competitive aspect. Cheers.

My most accepted image was ‘Silverback’ (above) with a 95% acceptance rate and ‘Alone’ (below) is my most awarded image.