Photography News 11

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Profile

FIAP You’ve probably heard of the Fédération Internationale de L’Art Photographique, most likely as FIAP, but what goes on at FIAPHQ? FIAP president Riccardo Busi sheds some light on the international photographic organisation INSIDERVIEW

Words by Riccardo Busi

When I was about six years old I went to Ireland with my mother on my first trip abroad. I started to take pictures with a Kodak Brownie Vecta camera, which I still have, and that was my first experience with photography. I joined my first camera club in 1978 at the age of 20; after two years I changed camera clubs and joined the Gruppo Fotografico il Cupolone in Florence, Italy, which is still my club today. For more than ten years I was a member of the club’s board and then I became vice president in 1990, a time when the club reached almost 300 members, making it one of the biggest camera clubs in Italy. I will always be grateful to the Gruppo Fotografico il Cupolone, it has a splendid group of artistic photographers who are always ready to give me a hand with enthusiasm and generosity. It’s there that I learnt all I know about our common passion. The club is full of accomplished photographers: three MFIAP holders, two members with EFIAP/P and an incredible number of holders of other FIAP Distinctions. It is now an ILFIAP (Individual Local member) and CAFIAP (Club Artiste FIAP) club that is really active internationally. I have participated in shows and competitions and since about 1980 I have had more than 350 personal and collective exhibitions in slide and digital projections in Italy and abroad. I have achievedmore than 1000 admissions in international competitions and over 200 awards. I am the five times FIAP World Champion in Nature; once FIAP World Champion in Projected Images; and three times FIAP Gold Medal winner in Projected Images World Cups. In 2007 with my club we won the second FIAP World Cup for clubs and in 2011 with the FIAF (Italian Federation Team) we won the 60th Anniversary FIAP Cup. I started to get involved with FIAP in 1998 when I was nominated as the foreign department director

FIAP’sobjectives

• To develop and promote the photographic knowledge in the world on an artistic, educational and scientific level in agreement with the principles of UNESCO (we are the only photographic association recognised by UNESCO). • To foster in the name of photography fraternal links and friendly relations among all member federations and develop trust among people in order to strengthen peace in the world. • All considerations of political, ideological, racial or religious nature are totally excluded from the activities of FIAP.

and FIAP liaison officer by the Italian Federation of Photographic Arts (FIAF). In 2000 I became a member of the FIAP Nature Commission. As liaison officer I was one of the organisers of the FIAP congress in Tuscany in 2001. During the following year, the FIAP directory board called on me to cover the role of FIAP general secretary, I was then confirmed in that position at the FIAP congress in Budapest in 2004 and in 2012 was elected president. FIAP is funded through annual members’ fees and the income generated by exhibitions and competitions. It is directed by a president and a board of directors comprising nine members: the president, two vice presidents and a treasurer

Photography News | Issue 11

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