Society of Wedding & Portrait Photographers terminates Australian's membership

Another day, and another disqualification. This time, The Societies of Photographers which runs SWPP (The Society of Wedding & Portrait Photographers), issued a statement on their website that it had been brought to their attention “that a range of images submitted by an Australian entrant for both competitions and qualifications, have not been submitted in accordance with the rules of the competition”.

In the statement, the CEO of The Societies of Photographers, Phil Jones, indicated that as of 18/2/19, they have “taken the decision to disqualify all images entered in the competitions, remove the Fellowship distinction and terminate the membership of the entrant in accordance with the Terms and Conditions of Membership outlined in the Members’ Handbook”.

Along with the recent announcement from the WPPP, the SWPP has chosen not to name the photographer in question, stating only their nationality.

The full statement from Phil Jones appears below.

A statement from Phil Jones The Societies of Photographers CEO.

Since taking over the SWPP in January 2000, we have had the pleasure of running both print and online photographic competitions.

Over the years we have seen thousands of stunning images that have inspired our members across the globe.

On the rare occasion, we have images reported to us that don’t abide by the rules of the competition or the spirit of the competition. In each case we take the matter very seriously and investigate each image accordingly with the dignity and respect that it deserves.

It has been brought to our attention, that a range of images submitted by an Australian entrant for both competitions and qualifications, have not been submitted in accordance with the rules of the competition.

Since the complaint was logged with our office, the team have been in contact with numerous international photographic associations, judges, representatives of the industry, our in-house team as well as of course with the entrant themselves.

We would like to take this time to thank the members for their patience whilst we investigated and resolved the complaint.

As of today (Monday 18 February 2019) we have taken the decision to disqualify all images entered in the competitions, remove the Fellowship distinction and terminate the membership of the entrant in accordance with the Terms and Conditions of Membership outlined in the Members’ Handbook.

Decisions like this are not reached easily or quickly and of course our main concern is to protect the interest of the photographic industry, whilst given the entrant every opportunity to defend themselves satisfactorily.

Over the next few days we will be looking to upgrade images where possible, to fill the now vacant Photographer of the Year Award categories. We will also be updating all our media channels where possible.

Could we take this moment to remind all photographers to comprehensively read the rules of all photographic competitions before entering and above all abide by the spirit of the competition, to share their passion of photography.

Phil Jones
The Societies of Photographers CEO

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