Patrick Hickey, one of DPNow's earliest patrons, provides some fascinating insight into the UK photography club scene.
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Introduction: Patrick is a very familiar figure on the
DPNow discussion forum, as well as being a very talented amateur photographer. As his article explains, Patrick has been a very active and involved member of his local photographic club, getting on for two decades. We thought we'd invite Patrick to introduce DPNow readers into the world of club life and we're very pleased that we did. Patrick has provided some very interesting insights into club life, including the impact that digital photography has had on club activities. Maybe your local club could be an undiscovered treasure? Patrick's article also explains how you can find out more about your local club in the UK.
If you're from outside the UK and would like to share your photographic club experiences, please get in touch.
As an amateur photographer I have been involved with Photographic Clubs for about 25 years (I hate the term Camera Club it infers more interest in the toys than pictures). My current club is Aston & Erdington Photographic Society in Birmingham locally known as A&E (yes we have heard all the jokes), of which I have been a member for some 16-17 years.
In that time I have served on committee, doing the job of merit secretary (club competitions), inter club secretary (inter club competitions), two years as president, and this year I have returned to the job of merit again.
This club is one of the larger, possibly second largest, with about 80 members in the Midland Counties Photographic Federation (MCPF), itself a member of the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain (PAGB).
The largest club in the Midlands, by a long way, is the Smethwick Photographic Society, with over 250 members. They can support ownership of their own premises via a trust in which the members hold shares.
I have also been submitting my views on and off on this forum for 3 or 4 years and seen I think three or is it four major upgrades to its presentation.
What has brought forward this mind blowing information? Well to put it simply I have been asked to start a discussion on the subject, and from the points I have been asked to raise suggests quite an in-depth discussion.
What is the point of a camera club?
This can be different things to different people, some look to be a big fish in a little pool, while some want to learn from others about the hobby. For me, it’s a social thing, gathering with like minded people interested in picture making. Our club, as with most, is divided into Beginners, Intermediate and, so-called, Advanced workers; A,B and C. Some clubs with smaller memberships run only two; A & B.
How can you get information about the club local to you?
That’s simple go to www.pagb-photography-uk.co.uk, which lists the all Federations, which in turn lists all member clubs within any particular federation.
What can you expect from a club?
Well that can and will depend on the club itself. The likes of Smethwick, mentioned above, have studio facilities, lecture room, darkroom, now little used, and a computer room, also little used as the members all have their own computers.
They sport a licensed bar and can provide hot, home-cooked, meals for special photographic events as they also have a well equipped kitchen. They host workshops by eminent photographers on a regular basis, which are open to others apart from their own members.
They are also the regional area centre for the Royal Photographic Society, holding their workshops, I believe, once a month. I have attended one or two from time to time myself and learned much.
Of course Smethwick is a one-off. Few other clubs can operate on this level. Typically, a club rents a room in the local community centre or similar, pubs being a favoured option.
Aston & Erdingon club members on a field trip to Wales.
We at A&E use a Church Hall. We do run workshops ourselves on extra evenings, covering the editing and manipulation of pictures. This year we will be planning some field trips locally, aimed mostly at beginners, however we all still find something new to learn along the way.
Regular club evening, as with all other clubs, have a mixture of guest speakers, usually from another club. Club competitions are also run. These vary from club to club. We at A&E have our merit competition; one set subject and two open, making three images per round, and three rounds in the club year.
We invite someone from outside our club to do the judging. We have a points system, so obviously the one with the greatest number of points wins as the most consistent worker. We run this for prints only and again for slides only.
This year, interestingly, brought about a change from a slide only competition to projected images with slides and projected digital image files competing side by side against each other.
How has digital affected clubs?
The answer is a great deal. After a slow start and the usual arguments that it isn’t photography and all that rubbish, digital now dominates the club scene. A&E must now be 95% digital, with the real diehards succumbing to the pixel. This is reflected throughout all the clubs I know, with the exception of one or two specialist clubs encouraging the use of film.
An interesting observation of the arrival of digital has been a boom in printed competition entries. This has been to the cost of traditional slides being produced in smaller numbers and to a lower general quality. Additional pressure comes from the rise in popularity if projecting digital images.
An ageing membership?
Clubs have a reputation in recent years of an aged membership and, unfortunately, this is largely true. We are fortunate at my club in that we do have a fair number of younger members, well at least we range from late 30’s to over 80 years old, but sadly the really young don’t appear interested.
It may be of interest that many, if not most, of the older club members don’t particularly think 'old'. This applies to many of the clubs I have visited in the course of both exhibitions and doing talks. Photography must keep us all young at heart.
Exhibitions
This brings me to the exhibition scene. There is a very lively competitive exhibition circuit, perhaps it’s the competitive nature that puts the young off. I don’t know. The big Midland exhibitions are Smethwick International, Bromsgrove, Solihull (Shown at Smethwick) and the federation's own MIDFOT (again shown at Smethwick) and many more less important ones. Evesham club run a digital only exhibition, with all entries submitted on CD/DVD
Club style?
Finally I will finish with the question is there a club style? Well I am embarrassed to say probably yes. I think it stems from the competitive nature of clubs and the exhibitions. It does stifle any experimentation, at least with the trophy-hunters, who play it safe to win.
That’s not to say something unusual and different doesn’t appear from time to time and win, it does, but promptly gets cloned by the technically good but-no imagination-of-their-own brigade. Clubs have a tendency to look inward, comparing good and bad within the system, and discounting some outstanding work outside.
Fortunately, that's not true of all of us, and there are enough people to move things along perhaps slowly. More of us with a wider outlook would be even better.
