The Photographic Alliance of Great Britain (PAGB) run an awards scheme called the Awards for Photographic Merit. There are now five levels of awards; Badge (BPAGB), Credit (CPAGB), Distinction (DPAGB), Excellence (EPAGB) and Master (MPAGB). The Badge and Excellence levels were introduced 2023. In November 2018 I attended my adjudication for the CPAGB, which at that time was the starting level. According to the PAGB the standard of the CPAGB is defined as “good club standard” but in the opinion of the L&CPU it really means, “the standard of the better members in a strong club”. I had to submit 10 images for the adjudication and these were rated by a panel of 6 judges. A total of 200 points is required for a pass and I achieved 224 points for my 10 images. There were 63 print entries and 16 digital entries and about two thirds of the entrants passed. The general standard was high, so I was pleased to pass with a reasonable margin.
These are the 10 images I submitted.
Not one to rest on my laurels at the beginning of 2019 I submitted my application for the next level of award, a Distinction. At this level they are looking for images that achieve a high level of acceptance in exhibitions and requires 15 images to be submitted. The pass mark is 300, so still an average of 20 marks per image. I opted to submit prints rather than digital for this one, in the hope that I would know exactly how my images would look on the day. I attended an L&CPU mock adjudication at the end of September 2019 and was pleased to come away with a score which would give me a pass. However there were a few with borderline scores which I reworked and a couple I chose to replace. The formal adjudication took place on 24th November in Watford. I was very pleased to get a score of 310 which gave me a pass. Scoring aligned very well with the mock adjudication apart from the score for Keeping Watch which was much lower. My mentor said the print looked very blue under the viewing lamp, so perhaps that was the reason. Below are my 15 images.
In 2025 I decided to apply for the new Excellence level. This is print only and all images must be new. The images are judged to the same standard as the Distiction level but a higher pass mark is required, 330, so an average of 22 per image. I attended an L&CPU mock adjudication in January 2026 and was pleased to come away with a score which would give me a pass. However there were a few with borderline scores which I reworked and a couple I chose to replace. The formal adjudication took place on 26th April 2026 in Dalston, Carlisle. There were 11 applicants for EPAGB and 6 were successful. I was very pleased to get a score of 348 which gave me a comfortable pass. Scoring aligned very well with the mock adjudication. Below are my 15 images.
PAGB Competition: EPAGB – April 26, 2026 — Total Score: 348
