Invitation: 9th Nordic International Digital Circuit 2024

• Nordic Society of Photography, NFFF 2024/04
• Riksförbundet Svensk Fotografi, RSF 2024/07
• Norsk Selskap for Fotografi, NSFF, Norway 2024/12
• Selskabet for Dansk Fotografi, SDF, Denmark 2024/10
• The Association of Finnish Camera Clubs, AFCC, Finland 2024/07
• FIAP Patronage 2023/580–583
• Global Photographic Union License L240101
• Image Sans Frontiere Label 33/2024
• The Image Colleague Society Patronage 2024/38–41

The exhibition will be conducted following requirements from the organizations mentioned above. The exhibition is a four-country circuit in collaboration with the national organizations in Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Denmark:

• Riksförbundet Svensk Fotografi – RSF (Sweden), FIAP Patronage 2024/580
• Norsk Selskap For Fotografi – NSFF (Norway), FIAP Patronage 2024/581
• Suomen Kameraseurojen Liitto – SKsL (Finland), FIAP Patronage 2024/582
• Selskabet for Dansk Fotografi – SDF (Denmark), FIAP Patronage 2024/583

Colour section, Finland:

• Marc Sabat, NSMIF/d1, EFIAP
• Petri Damstén, NSMiF/d2, MNFFF/g, EFIAP/p
• Merja Martikainen, NSMiF/d1, MNFFF/s, EFIAP
• Alternate: TBA

Monochrome section, Finland:

• Kari Kumpulainen, NSMiF/p, EFIAP
• Juha Saastamoinen, NSMiF/p, MNFFF/b
• Wille Markkanen, NSMiF/b
• Alternate: TBA

Colour section, Denmark:

• Ulrik Pedersen
• Per Martens, EFIAP, NSMiFs, ESDF
• Jens Christensen
• Alternate: TBA

Monochrome section, Denmark:

• Leif Elsborg, AFIAP, NSMiFb, ASDF
• Jan Petersen
• Jörn Lützen, AFIAP
• Alternate: TBA

Image and entry requirements

This exhibition is open to anyone; however, an entry may be rejected when the Sponsor or the Exhibition Organizers, in their reasonable discretion, believe it does not conform to the exhibition rules and these Conditions of Entry. Membership in any photographic organization is not required.

Penalties

Entries will not be accepted from any entrant on the PSA Penalties List for Ethics Violation or the FIAP red list. Entry fees are not refundable in these circumstances.

PSA Star Ratings

To receive proper Star rating credit from PSA, entrants must provide their name and country precisely the same way in each exhibition. Aliases are not permitted. Please contact PSA in the event of name changes or relocating to another country. Using one’s name differently in different exhibitions exposes the entrant to the risk that PSA Star Ratings may not recognise many of their acceptances.

Image creation and ownership

In all exhibition sections, images must originate as photographs made by the entrant. They may not incorporate identifiable images produced by anyone else (for example, clip art, replacement skies, or stock images). Images created in whole or in part by image creation software (frequently called ‘AI’ images) are not allowed. Editing or altering images is permitted within the limits specified in the relevant section definitions available on the PSA website.

Certification

By submitting an image, the entrant certifies the work as his or her own. Images may not incorporate elements produced by anyone else (for example, clip art, images, or art by others downloaded from the Internet). Aliases are not allowed.

Reproduction

The entrant permits the sponsors to reproduce all or part of the entered material free of charge for publication and/or display in media related to the exhibition. This may include low-resolution posting on a website. The Photographic Society of America (PSA) may request specific permission from entrants to reproduce entered images in its educational materials. The terms of that permission will be mutually agreed between the entrant and PSA except when the entered image breaches the PSA Ethics Policy. In those circumstances, the image may be reproduced by PSA, without the entrant’s further permission, for educational purposes to illustrate serious exhibition rule violations. For those reproductions, the entrant’s name will be withheld.

Entries will not be accepted from entrants who indicate that their images may not be reproduced in materials related to the exhibition.” The exhibition assumes no liability of any misuse of copyright.

Alteration and Computer Generation

Subject to Divisional restrictions (particularly in Nature, Photo Travel, and Photojournalism), images may be altered, either electronically or otherwise, by the entrant; adjustments to enhance images or creatively modify images are allowed, provided the underlying photograph is retained in a way that is obvious to the viewer. Images may not be constructed entirely with a computer and must be the sole work of the entrant.

Re-use of accepted images

Any image accepted in this exhibition, past or present, may not be entered again in the same Division Star Ratings Class in any future instances of this exhibition. It may be entered in any other PSA-recognised exhibitions but must always have the same title. Re-titling in another language is not allowed.

Entry

An Entry consists of, up to and including, four (4) images entered by a single entrant into the same Section. An entrant may only enter a specific Section once. Entrants may not enter identical or similar images into the same section or different sections of the same exhibition.

Titles

Each image must have a unique title that describes the image. That unique title must be used to enter that image or an identical Image into all PSA-recognized exhibitions. Titles must be 35 characters or fewer. No titles may be visible to the judges, and nothing in the image may identify the entrant.

Titles may not include file extensions such as .jpg or .jpeg (or any other camera capture filenames such as IMG 471). Titles may not consist of personal identifiers possibly augmented by a number or include words such as “untitled” or “no title”. Titles may not consist solely of numbers unless those numbers are prominently contained within the image, such as a contestant number in a race.

Colour and Monochrome

Colour and monochrome images from the same capture that share substantial pictorial content will be considered the same and must be given the same title. The entrant must sign the entry submittal form in the space provided to verify authorisation for the exhibition to destroy the exhibitor’s prints in lieu of returning them. Otherwise, the full entry fee shall apply if the exhibition has separate costs for the return and non-return of prints.

The exhibition will be conducted following the PSA and FIAP rules.

An entrant’s images will not be presented to the judges consecutively. An entrant’s four images will be distributed throughout four rounds of judging in that section. The distribution of images will be in the same round order as the one submitted by the entrant. At no stage will a judge be able to view all the entrant’s images together.

Subject matter and section definitions

Statement on Subject Matter – applicable to all sections

The fundamental rule that must be observed at all times and applies to all sections offered in exhibitions with PSA recognition is that the welfare of living creatures is more important than any photograph. This means that practices such as baiting subjects with a living creature and removing birds from nests to obtain a picture are highly unethical, and such photographs are not allowed in any exhibition with PSA recognition. Under no circumstances may a living creature be placed in a situation where it will be killed, injured or stressed to obtain a photograph. Images that show live creatures being fed to captive animals, birds or reptiles are prohibited under any circumstances.

There are also concerns about using aerial photography, drones, helicopters, and low-flying aircraft. These should not interfere with other individuals or animals, disrupting their normal activity or the way they interact with their environment. Entrants in PSA-recognized exhibitions should comply with all relevant laws and regulations associated with aerial photography in the country in which the image was taken.

Entry into PSA-recognized exhibitions is conditional on accepting these policies. The content of images must comply with the General Conditions and with the Division and Section definitions listed in these conditions. Images that – in the sole opinion of the judges or the Exhibition Organizers – do not comply will be disqualified, so the entrant may be aware of the problem when considering entry into other exhibitions with PSA recognition.

Breaches of rules

Entrants are strongly advised to look at the PSA Ethics Policy. If, at any time, it is determined in the reasonable discretion of the exhibition organizer or the judges before, during, or after the judging of an exhibition that an entrant has submitted entries where one or more images may fail to comply with these Conditions of Entry, including the stated definitions, exhibitions, on behalf of the judges, are allowed to request unedited or raw files of the submitted image

To ensure that images comply with the Conditions of Entry and definitions, the exhibition organizers may carry out reasonable measures to verify that:

1. the images are the original work of the entrant and
2. the images comply with the rules and definitions as set out in these Conditions of Entry

These steps include but are not limited to questioning any entrant, requiring the submission of RAW files or other digital files representing the original capture of the submitted image(s), confronting the entrant with evidence that one or more submitted images fail to comply with the Conditions of Entry (also known as Entry Rules), and offering the entrant a reasonable opportunity to provide counter-evidence to refute the exhibition organizer’s evidence by a set deadline. Such entries that are not cleared or are still questionable after the entrant has presented evidence may be considered in breach of these Conditions of Entry and declined. Such entries may be referred to PSA to investigate possible ethics violations further.

PSA, on receiving reports from exhibitions of possible breaches, retains the right to:

• investigate in any way all complaints/suspicions of breaches of entry conditions
• impose penalties if deemed necessary
• void the acceptance of any image found to violate the PSA rules
• include the entrant’s name on the list of sanctions provided to exhibitions
• share such investigations with FIAP

Entrants automatically agree to these terms by entering the Exhibition and agree to cooperate with any investigation.

If another party is submitting images on the entrant’s behalf, the entrant will still be held responsible for adhering to these Conditions of Entry (Entry Rules) and will be subject to penalties for any violations of these Conditions of Entry and PSA’s Statement of Ethics that may result.

If another party is processing images for an entrant or submitting images on the entrant’s behalf, the entrant will still be held responsible for adhering to all Conditions of Entry including the specific conditions in the relevant definitions.

NOTICE: When entrants fill in the Entry Form to submit an entry, they will see the following feature to affirm they have read these Conditions of Entry:

“I hereby confirm that I have read, understood and agree to the Conditions of Entry of this exhibition. I have read the PSA document to be found at https://psa-photo.org/resource/resmgr/pdf/exhibitions_/exhibition-entrants-agreemen.pdf . I am aware that PSA may apply penalties for breaches of these Conditions of Entry.

I hereby expressly agree to FIAP document 018/2017 «Conditions and regulations for FIAP Patronage» and FIAP document 033_2021 «Sanctions for breaching FIAP regulations and the red list». I am particularly aware of chapter II «Regulations for International photographic events under FIAP patronage» of FIAP document 018/2017, dealing under Section II.2 and II.3 with the FIAP participation rules, the sanctions for breaching FIAP regulations and the red list.”

Failure to agree will mean that the application will not proceed.

Further:

• Four images per section, for a total of eight images.
• All photos must be in JPG file format.
• The file size must be a maximum of 1920 pixels horizontal and 1080 pixels vertical and should not exceed 2MB.
• Judging equipment: Full HD screens.

Entry submission signifies acceptance of all rules and conditions of the Circuit.

File name

Each image must have a unique title. Once an image has been accepted in a PSA-recognized exhibition, that same image, or a like “in camera” or a “reproduction” duplicate of that image:

• May not be re-entered in any section of the same Division Star Ratings class in that exhibition, regardless of media, format, or title.
• May not be re-titled for entry in any other PSA Recognized exhibition.

Words such as “Untitled” and “No Title” are not acceptable as part or all of an image’s title, nor are camera capture filenames.

No title or identification of the maker shall be visible anywhere on the face of an image.

All information needed will be collected from the online entry system. Please do not use invalid characters such as: / \ : ? * ” <> | ‘ #

Upload

The images must be uploaded online through our website https://portal.nordic.photo.

Author copyright

Each entrant owns the copyright of the submitted images and certifies the work as his/her own. The entrant permits the organizers to reproduce the entered material free of charge for promotional purposes related to the Circuit, like the catalogue, photo CD/DVD, and the website, unless specifically stated otherwise by the entrant on the entry form.

FIAP:

By the sole act of submitting his/her images or files to a salon under FIAP Patronage, the entrant accepts without exception and with no objection that FIAP can investigate the submitted images to establish if these obey FIAP regulations and definitions even if the entrant is not a member of FIAP; that FIAP will use any means at its disposal for this undertaking; that any refusal to cooperate with FIAP or any refusal to submit the original files as captured by the camera, or failure to provide sufficient evidence, will be sanctioned by FIAP and that in case of sanctions following the non-compliance with FIAP regulations, the name of the entrant will be released in any form valid to inform the breaches of the rules. Leaving the EXIF data in the submitted files intact is recommended to ease eventual investigations.