The BPPA Bookshop – NOW OPEN

We are getting loads of requests for copies of the Assignments catalogues – way more than expected – we’re really pleased that it is so popular!
To make it a bit easier to deal with the demand we have just added a “Bookshop” to the BPPA website where you can buy the books.
IT’S OPEN NOW!!!
For those of you that haven’t seen the Assignments 2017 catalogues they feature every picture that made it onto the wall, printed one picture to an A4 page, in full colour. It’s a pretty amazing collection of the year’s best pictures.
Every picture entered into assignments makes an appearance as part of the “contact sheet” and gets a name check!
We’ve done one for last year too…
Because last year was the first time we had done “Assignments” in it’s current form we weren’t able to do a catalogue to go along side the exhibition. That seemed a bit unfair on the photographers who entered and got pictures used last year – so we decided to put that right by doing a retrospective “Assignments 2016” book.
Stocks really are limited – so place your orders now!
Click here for The BPPA Bookshop

Assignments 2017 – IT’S OPEN!!

The British Press Photographers’ Association is pleased to announce that ASSIGNMENTS 2017 is now accepting entries.
There are a few things different from last year so please do read the new rules and how to enter – we are realists though – we know you will probably skip to the “how do I enter” bit without going through the rest of it.
So here is a very brief rundown..
1, You have to be a member of the BPPA – if you aren’t you can join now.
2, It will cost £2 per picture to submit images, up to a maximum of 5 images. Those selected will be asked to pay a fee of £50 per picture towards the cost of framing (capped at £100 max). A Paypal request for payment will be sent to the email address you submit your pictures from once we have received the files (Sorry – we have to do this to pay for the exhibition – we aren’t making a profit or being paid to do this.)
3, The curators can’t enter so there is no risk of fixing.
4, No trying to nobble the curators – they are independent.
5, No doctoring pictures
6, Its your copyright – but we need to be able to use the images for the exhibition to work.
7, If you don’t want us to use your pictures on social media thats cool – just say so when you enter.
8, Read the tech specs and entry procedure bit
9, Deadline is midnight on 31th of August 2017

Click here for the rules and entry procedures

It’s Bigger.. It’s Better… It’s Back!!!

After the phenomenal success of last year’s ‘Assignments’ exhibition the British Press Photographers’ Association are pleased announce that IT’S BACK!!!
Not only is it back – but it’s bigger and better this year!
Assignments 2017 will go on display from 12th – 16th of October 2017 as part of PHOTOBLOCK Continue reading

DACS – It's your money – Act Now

Every year The Design and Artists’ Copyright Society (DACS) distributes the fees paid by libraries and schools and so forth for copying copyright work – including photographs.
Basically that means they licence secondary uses of your work that you couldn’t possibly deal with on a day to day basis – and you are entitled to a share of the income! There have been changes to the scheme this year that are too tortuous to explain here – but the crux is that the usual deadline of 30th September has been moved to Monday May 1st.

THATS NEXT MONDAY!!

The new system wants you to file a complete list of every book or magazine publication you have ever had – which is confusing lots of people. IGNORE THAT.
You can still enter details of just three publications from magazines and qualify for around £700! That’s not three publications this year – that is three publications in your whole career. The same applies to uses in books.

BUT YOU HAVE TO DO IT NOW!!

If you’ve done it before, it takes about five or ten minutes to re-do. If you’re new to it, it’ll probably take about fifteen or twenty. Thats maybe around £700 for half an hours work – the best job you will get this year!!

DO IT NOW!!!

www.dacs.org.uk

The AGM 2017

The date for the BPPA AGM is fast approaching – May 4th 2017 – PLEASE COME ALONG!!
It has been a good year for the BPPA – The highlight was definitely the “Assignments” exhibition – with lots of other good stuff going on behind the scenes! It would be great to see as many of you as possible on the evening for a pint and a chat about what the association has been up to – and what we hope to achieve in the coming year. You don’t even have to be a member to come along and take part in the discussion. In particular it would be great to see as many younger members and women photographers as possible – to move away from the “old geezers” image.
We are hoping to make it a little more streamlined this year by producing an “annual report” for members to read beforehand – hopefully cutting down on the boring stuff and leaving more time for a beer and general discussion of things photographic. A copy will be made available on the members facebook page in the next day or two, and the agenda at the end of this week.

PLEASE GET INVOLVED!!

If you would like to get more involved with making things happen we would love to have you! Just email [email protected] with a short message outlining why you want to be on the board and what you hope to achieve in the next year and we’ll get back to you with more details.
Likewise if anyone wishes to stand for the “officer” roles then they should declare their candidacy now.
The officers are currently;
Chair – Chris Eades
Chief Executive – Neil Turner
Deputy – Andrew Baker
Deputy – Kelvin Bruce
Web – Jamie Lorriman
Treasurer – Tim Bishop
Officer – Spencer Griffiths
Officer – Joanne Davidson
If anyone wishes to stand for these roles they need to give notice by Friday midnight – in order to give us time to organise an election. Likewise if there are any resolutions for the AGM that you wish to table please could you let Chris have them by Friday 28th.
Finally thank you to everyone who has put in so much effort in the last year both in the spotlight and behind the scenes to make this such a good year for the BPPA. Hopefully next year will be even better – and we hope to see you all for a pint on May 4th to discuss how to make this happen.
Where and When?
The AGM will be held at The Hoop and Grapes pub, Farringdon Street, London from 7.30pm on the 4th of May 2017.
If you have never been, you can find it at:
80 Farringdon St, London EC4A 4BL
Parking nearby is limited but there’s plenty of public transport in the area.
 

New discounts for Members

One of the questions we get asked a lot by prospective members is “Why should I be a member of the BPPA – I already have a press card – what other benefits are there?”
It’s a fair question.
We’ve brought in the “Assignments” exhibition which recieved great reviews and seemed to go down well with members – but we definitely need more tangible benefits.
There are some pretty decent members offers and discounts – twenty percent off hire and own brand gear (along with free sensor cleans) at Calumet, Insurance deals with Aaduki, money off Paramo winter clothing, Photomechanic, Tower Bridge Studio hire and Batteryforce products – but we want to improve on these.
So we are really pleased to announce that we have just secured a twenty percent discount on annual subscriptions to Readly – the online magazine site.
For those of you that don’t know Readly, it brings together a huge range of magazines on one site – allowing you to browse current and back issues on line.
Celeb mags, Music mags, Lifestyle mags, Motoring mags and even Photography mags – way more than we can list here. The best thing is to have a look at their titles here
Now – you can read all these for just £76.70 per year – thats a twenty percent discount with your BPPA membership.
Whether you are looking to see what got used from last weeks premiere in OK magazine, want to read a review of the latest Fuji in Amateur Photographer or simply want to flick through Mac World while on a doorstep they are all there.
And of course it’s super useful for doing your invoicing and DACS!
We are really pleased to be able to add this to our members discounts – and hopefully have some more offers to announce shortly.
To make it even easier to claim these discounts details can now be accessed via our new Members Offers page

Assignments 2016: The Photographs

The wait is over. If you couldn’t make it to the Old Truman Brewery this month or if you just want to see it all over again,

CLICK HERE for Assignment 2016: The BPPA Exhibition

Thanks must go to all those members who rolled up their sleeves and covered themselves (and some walls) in paint, to our friends at Fixation who helped us fund this year’s show, and also our fabulous printer Duncan Phillips and amazing framer Daniel Gibson.
Now, who’s ready for Assignments 2017?

Assignments 2016: The BPPA Exhibition

Ben Cawthra

Only a few days left until the launch of Assignments 2016 – an exhibition of the very best of British Press Photography over the last twelve months.
This is the UK’s biggest exhibition of press photography and features work from some of the best photographers working in the UK today, as part of the “Photoblock” event at the Truman Brewery in Brick Lane.
Also taking part are our friends at The Association of Photographers, The Royal Photographic Society and the Masters of Photography graduate show. Those nice people at Fixation have kindly sponsored the show.

Assignments will run from 14th to 17th of October 2016

Make a note in your diary to come along and take a look!

Above photograph courtesy Ben Cawthra

FREE MONEY!!!!

Ok – now we have your attention.
Every year DACS ( The Design and Artists Copyright Society) collects millions of pounds worth of royalties due for use of our photographs from libraries, universities and other organisations. It is payment for lending books, photocopying and things like that.
They then redistribute this money to us through the “Payback Scheme” – and it usually comes to several hundred pounds each.
THIS MONEY BELONGS TO YOU – IT IS OWED TO YOU – BUT YOU HAVE TO CLAIM IT!!
You only have until September 30th this year to make your claim – but it only takes about half an hour to do – and you will get a decent payout just in time for Christmas.
We realise that many photographers are daunted by the prospect of making a claim – but it really is very simple – and can all be done online.
To help you with this – here is a beginners run through of what you will need to do…
REMEMBER DO NOT ALLOW AN AGENT TO PERSUADE YOU TO ALLOW THEM TO DO IT FOR YOU – IT’S YOUR MONEY – DON’T GIVE AWAY SEVERAL HUNDRED POUNDS FOR NOTHING!
So – here’s what to do.
Firstly you have to get together some info.
(Yeah – I know this sounds like a drag – but look at it this way – Its a couple of days wages for half an hours work)
1. Get together the title and date of three (thats all!!) books that have used your pictures in the whole of your career – it doesn’t matter what they are or when they were published , just so long as they have an ISBN number.  You can look up this info via Google or maybe find it on Amazon.
2. Now find the same info for three magazines that have used your pictures. Not in the last year – but in your whole career.  I’ll say it again – thats three pictures used in magazines EVER!!  All you need if the title, date and the ISSN number of that magazine – again you can get this info with a google search.
(If you don’t have cuts or are struggling to remember dates then maybe you can work backwards – go through your picture archive and dig out some pictures you know made it into a magazine, and then check magazines shortly after this date?)
3. Finally – Have you had any pictures used on TV in the last year? Make a list of these too – although these have to have been during 2015
Thats it – you’ve done the hard part.
4. Now go to secure.dacs.org.uk and register.
Fill in your relevant details; that you are claiming for photography, how many years you have been working as a ‘visual artist’, what organisations you belong to, etc.
Now make your claims…
Firstly books.
You are claiming for all uses throughout your career up until the end of the relevant claim year, in this case ending 31st December 2015 – but you don’t have to list them all!
As we said earlier DACS cannot identify specific secondary uses of your work, so all you need to do is prove that you have had pictures published in books at some point in your career. They only ask for the ISBN number, title and year of three books included in your claim.
Then they then ask you to estimate how many times, throughout your career, your pictures have been used in books.
Finally then ask you to tick off all categories into which these uses fell – Academic, Art, etc.
And that’s it.
Next – Magazines and Journals.
Its an identical procedure – asking you to list three magazines where you have had pictures published – including their Name, issue number or cover date and
ISSN, ISBN or barcode number
Then – Television.
In this case only your claim is restricted to uses in the relevant DACS claim year, for now 2015. You are asked to enter how many uses in specified TV channels. Skip this if its not relevant or you can’t remember.
Thats all they want to know about pictures published.
Really.
It’s that simple.
After that all you have to do is read and accept the mandate authorising DACS to act on your behalf, which you sign with a tick. Then enter your bank details, tax status, and VAT detail. And finally you are asked to accept their Payback T&C’s.
(Please read the mandate and T&Cs – make sure you understand and are happy with them!!)
That’s all you have to do. Job done. Sit back and wait for a few hundred quid to drop into your bank – just in time to buy xmas presents or to pay for the xmas party!!!
But, do it now, before September 30th!
NO, REALLY – DO IT NOW – DON’T PUT IT OFF!!
Do not allow your agency to claim on your behalf – they take a big commission and in some cases even an admin fee too. Whatever they say, it’s your choice. Beware any new agency small print you may not have read authorising them to claim instead. They cannot do this without your express permission.
Do not give it – it’s your money. Not theirs.
(If they have in the past claimed in your name, and are now being a bit difficult about releasing the necessary sales info, you may well find DACS accepts the details provided in those previous claims as evidence for your claim today).
Finally, if any of the above is unclear, go to DACS FAQ’s:
DACS FAQ’s
Or ask us via the BPPA members Facebook page.
DO IT NOW – AND DON’T LET ANYONE TELL YOU THAT THEY HAVE A RIGHT TO HALF – ITS YOUR MONEY!!!

Assignments 2016

The British Press Photographers’ Association is pleased to announce the launch of a major new exhibition of members work.
Assignments 2016 will be displayed as part of the “London Photoblock” exhibition to be held during October at the Truman Brewery, in Brick Lane, at the bustling heart of the East End of London.
For one week we will take over the prestigious gallery space, alongside our colleagues from the Association of Photographers and the Royal Photographic Society, to present a show of the best British Press Photography to the public.
The purpose of the exhibition is to inspire members to produce world class work, spur newcomers to aspire to produce great work and to educate and inform the public about what we do.
The show is jointly funded by the BPPA and our friends at Fixation.
Entries are now open to all members of the BPPA. Working press photographers who are not currently members, or who have lapsed membership, are welcome to take part if they join or rejoin the association.

Click here for the rules and entry procedures

Above image courtesy Damien McFadden