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About the AOP
Welcome to the AOP
The AOP brings professional photographers together, protecting their rights and promoting photography.
We campaign for all photographers and our awards promote the best in photography. We also provide information services, education programmes, exhibitions and publications to support these activities.
As image-makers respond to globalisation, the AOP is building an effective network of communications with photographers from around the world.
History: Bringing Photographers Together Since 1968
The AOP was formed in 1968 as the Association of Fashion and Advertising Photographers by a small group of photographers (later joined by editorial photographers to become AFAEP). United by a common aim to challenge the then unreasonable demands of model agencies, it brought together professional photographers, to protect their rights and promote photography.
Constituted as a non-profit distributing trade association, today its membership exceeds 1,800 photographers and photographic assistants. It is supported by photographers´ agents, printers, manufacturers and suppliers of photographic equipment. The AOP also has a number of affiliated colleges and plays a significant role in promoting, maintaining and developing relationships between all levels of higher and further education and the professional industry.
The AOP´s principal aims have remained the same over the past 36 years and through its campaigning and education work has improved rights for all photographers and created a unique community of professionals. We are proud of our history, and rightly so: we negotiated reforms which led to the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988; we developed the widely accepted Standards of Practice, which afford photographers greater protection and ownership of their work; wrote ´Beyond the Lens´, the definitive guide to rights, ethics and business practice in professional photography; and created the AOP Awards, the most prestigious accolade in the photographic industry.
The AOP, recognising the many pressures photographers face, has developed a number of support services. These provide members with practical help to reduce the administrative burden of running a business and include workshops, guidance on how to resolve business and rights matters, freelance assistant referrals and a database of world-wide services. We also act as a forum for discussion and exchange of information about changes in the industry and the impact of new technologies.
As well as the Awards, the AOP also organizes separate annual competitions for photographic assistants and students of photography, which are equally highly respected and well established.
As image-makers respond to globalisation, the AOP is moving forward by building an effective network of communications with photographers around world. |
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