Where Are WE?

Got the latest CA Photo Annual recently. Here's what I thought about it: Noticed a new feature from Ann Telford covering a specific personal project from Jim Fiscus. I hope that is a regular feature, as we have alot we could share. Wondered why Fiscus mentioned how much he depended on his creative team to help him realize his vision for the series featured, but then failed to give ANY of them credit by name. Protectionism?? Hmmm. Everard Williams, Jr., a friend of mind and formerly a part of our roster, was included in the "50 Years of Photography" feature the pub ran. Ahh, those were heady days! Go Everard! He's now the 2nd in command at the Photo dept. at Art Center. Then I got to the annual part of the annual. Where are all of the US advertising winners??? I've noticed a declining number of US winners in other award shows, but never took the time to go through an tally up the totals. Here's what I came up with for CA: Non US: 24 winners, US: 12. Of those, almost half were for either pro-bono clients or spec work done purely for exposure. Is it indicative of a declining amount of good ad photographers in the US, or the lack of good ad work here?