Do Camera Clubs Promote the wrong things?

To many, being a cam­era club or pho­to­graph­ic soci­ety mem­ber or being able to say that a par­tic­u­lar club is ​‘their’ club is har­ness­ing a sense of belong­ing and com­mu­ni­ty. There is, of course, noth­ing wrong with this, and many pho­tog­ra­phers indeed look for­ward to club night and the events that bring every­one togeth­er. There is a com­fort­able famil­iar­i­ty to the place and the oth­er mem­bers that become friends.

In many ways, this extends to many activ­i­ties in life, from golf to book clubs, from gyms to social clubs. In fact, the UK boasts one of the high­est den­si­ties of clubs and soci­eties in the world, so sure­ly this should be healthy for pho­tog­ra­phy? Not nec­es­sar­i­ly so from our experiences.

First­ly, not all clubs are the same. Some are wel­com­ing places where help is always at hand, and new or less expe­ri­enced mem­bers are encour­aged to progress by the offer of help. Some clubs have splin­ter groups that nur­ture cer­tain skills in wildlife, street and por­trai­ture, accom­mo­dat­ing dif­fer­ing inter­ests, mak­ing mem­ber­ship even more rewarding. 

Tro­phies and awards are an inte­gral part of cam­era club life, and along with the pol­i­tics of these, this is where club life can act as a dis­in­cen­tive as well as a hand­i­cap for the pho­tog­ra­ph­er seek­ing to evolve. As with all com­pe­ti­tions, there are rules. Bound­aries are in place which can range from spe­cif­ic sub­ject mat­ter to whether the image can be only black and white. We have heard sto­ries of trees that have to be pre­sent­ed in an image in odd num­bers, and woe betide you if you have four or six in a row. The sun­rise and sun­set trends are often exhaust­ed, not to men­tion the ter­rors of not plac­ing the main sub­ject on ​‘the third’! When it comes to an impend­ing com­pe­ti­tion, under­stand­ably, indi­vid­u­als have their own inter­ests that come first, name­ly winning!

Then there are the peo­ple who decide the out­come of the com­pe­ti­tions, the judges. If there was ever one com­mon theme that was present in any account of club com­pe­ti­tions, it would be the dis­dain for the judges deliv­er­ing the scores. For the win­ners, things are fine, and they soon look for­ward to the next in the hope of reap­ing more awards. For the losers, the expe­ri­ence seems to act as a huge dis­in­cen­tive to con­tin­ue with their pho­tog­ra­phy, or even worse, dis­con­tin­ue mem­ber­ship, which is what I have seen many times over the years.

When com­pe­ti­tions become a dom­i­nant part of cam­era club envi­ron­ments, mem­bers are pitched against each oth­er and not only is bit­ter­ness felt towards the judges, but also towards the fel­low mem­bers that seem to con­sis­tent­ly win. Even worse are the tac­tics put in place to achieve a win. It is com­mon­ly heard that mem­bers will under­stand what types of images serve to please a par­tic­u­lar judge, and they will active­ly enter images of this genre or type in the hope that they will have an advantage. 

When all of these fac­tors come togeth­er, sup­port for oth­ers to progress and friend­ship with fel­low mem­bers begins to dwin­dle, and the expe­ri­ence of being there is fraught with neg­a­tiv­i­ty. By bring­ing peo­ple togeth­er with a com­mon pas­sion, it should be pre­sumed that the gath­er­ing of pho­to­graph­ic love would be shared and pro­mot­ed, but if that is large­ly replaced by com­pet­i­tive motives, how can this nur­ture indi­vid­u­al­i­ty and creativity? 

As with any art form, free­dom of expres­sion is its very lifeblood, yet a strong com­pe­ti­tion cul­ture can sup­press this, often embraced by their mem­bers in the pur­suit of win­ning awards. The most expres­sive and impres­sive pho­tographs ever made were borne of pho­tog­ra­phers who fol­lowed their hearts as opposed to har­bour­ing con­cerns about what oth­ers will think, in par­tic­u­lar, a judge. Who are you mak­ing pho­tographs for: the judge, the audi­ence, or yourself?