High-mileage photograph

Loan Collection image travels the world

When Dan Francis, M.Photog,Cr. CPP, entered photographs in the International Photographic Competition last year, he had no idea how far one would go. Literally.

From his home base in Fargo, North Dakota, Francis sent “Passing Time” to Georgia in mid-2018 for judging at IPC. There it scored a 98, landing it in PPA’s prestigious Loan Collection. 

© Courtesy Dan Francis
Dan Francis flew to Italy to see his image "Passing Time" displayed in Milan.

His image having achieved that distinction, Francis was tapped to become a member of Team USA to compete in PPA's 2019 World Photographic Cup. So “Passing Time” journeyed on to Drammen, Norway. In April it scored fifth in the world in the illustrative category of WPC, helping Team USA place second in the world overall.

At the WPC ceremony, “Passing Time” caught the eye of a gallery curator, who contacted Francis. By June, the image was on display at the Milan Photofestival in Milan, Italy (a mere 2 miles from DaVinci’s masterpiece painting “The Last Supper,” Francis notes). Francis flew to Italy to see the display and spend a week exporing the country's art.

Francis is excited and flattered to see how far “Passing Time” went during the course of a year. “Entering your work [in IPC] is a way to get your art out there for people to react to and value,” he says. “Simply deciding to enter your images, it gives you a possibility to travel the world.”