Opinion
13
How friendly is your club? SPEAKERS’ CORNER
This is your chance to climb up on your soapbox and have a rant. This issue, and a fewmonths into the new club season, Del Barrett asks howyour newmembers are faring. Are they still keen asmustard or have they drifted off never to be seen again?
greatly improved by cloning out that sign.” And with that pronouncement, my picture joined the others on the reject pile. I watched the rest of the evening in horror, as original, stunning images joined my landscape while the keeper pile grew in stature as every bloom, bird and bee was approved. After the judging, we had the chance to mingle and the secretary took me under his wing. He said that I’d made a poor choice, but he would be happy to look at my portfolio and help me choose one for the following week. I duly emailed him my favourites and back they came with the comment that they were not bad, but needed a bit of post-processing to improve them. He hoped I didn’t mind, but he’d made a few alterations to show me the sort of thing they were looking for. I eagerly opened the zip file and my jaw dropped. I’d like to say it dropped because I was so wowed by the dazzling improvements, but I’m afraid it dropped in horror as I saw that he’d tried to clone out the very things I was shooting – and hadn’t made a very good job of it either as evidenced by the smudgy post-processing artefacts. I realised I had a life-changing choice to make – either abandon photography or abandon the club. It wasn’t a difficult decision. What I found disturbing about the whole experience was the dogmatic belief about what constitutes a good photograph. It was evident that the club thinking was so blinkered, that anything slightly different was going to be dismissed. I don’t know whether it’s a question of the judges not appreciating any genre other than their own, or whether there are certain judging guidelines and technical requirements and anything outwith these is deemed a failure. But what I find even more disturbing is the hypnotic way that photographers accept these judgements. I see many images in the course of a week and if there is one where I am not fulsome in its praise, I can guarantee that the author will bleat that it recently scored highly at the camera club. Before you bombard PN’s editor with invitations for me to visit your club because you’re different, take a good look at yourselves and ask if you really are. A friend of mine joined a club last year, insisting that it was not like other clubs. I have watched her refreshingly different approach fade. I no longer envy her portfolio. I no longer look at her images and think ‘I wish I’d taken that’. I no longer seek her opinions on matters photographic, because I know within minutes she will mention the view of the camera club, as if she now has no ideas of her own. It has been like watching a loved one join a cult as she is brainwashed into thinking that her run-of-the- mill – albeit technically competent – stuff is world- class photography.
wanted two women to make the tea during the interval. I could feel my hackles rising. And I wanted to scream or tie myself to the railings when every manicured hand in the hall shot up, but as the newbie I thought it more diplomatic not to make a fuss in my first five minutes. After all, I didn’t want to get drummed out of something that promised so much. So having chosen the tea makers and sold the raffle tickets, the chair announced that the show was about to begin. I’d been told to bring a picture for the main event, a competition. One by one, the images were placed on the easel and one by one they were critiqued and laid in one of two piles – the keepers and the rejects. Finally, my photograph was up there. I was rather proud of my image. It showed a vast sweep of the local common taken with a wide aperture, such that the only part of the image that was in focus was the foreground – some blades of grass and a sign warning about speed cameras. I took it because I found it amusing. It was so obvious that there was not a speed camera in sight. Judge Dread looked at my picture, hummed and ahhed for a bit whilst stroking his chin and then proclaimed: “A nice landscape, but it could be
Words by Del Barrett ARPS
I had a life- changing choice tomake – abandon photography or abandon the club. It wasn’t
Recently I met someone for lunch and, given we are both passionate about photography, it wasn’t long before the conversation turned from the business of the day to cameras. After he had been waxing lyrical about his recent competition wins at his local camera club, I confessed I was not a fan of clubs. “I know,” he said “I was warned.” I was surprised my reputation had spread so far, but what he clearly didn’t know was my reasons. When I’d had a camera for about three months, I Googled around and found a local camera club. I immediately emailed the secretary and could hardly contain my excitement as Thursday night approached. The prospect of meeting once a week to discuss this great passion was exhilarating. I duly arrived at the village hall and my first thought was that I was in the wrong place. Had I inadvertently stumbled upon the local Darby and Joan meeting? Having established that I was in the right place, I paid my money and took my seat. The show began with the chairman making a few announcements, the last of which was that he
a difficult decision
IMAGES Del Barrett ploughs her own furrow, daring to be different with her photography.
Does Del Barrett have a point or she is just smarting from one bad experience? Do you pride yourself in the way your club handles newcomers? Drop us a line at opinion@ photography-news.co.uk. WHATDO YOUTHINK?
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Issue 3 | Photography News
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